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The  Newspaper  of  Information  Systems  Management 

May  31,  1993,  Vol.  27,  No.  22,  112  Pages,  $6/Copy,  $48/Year 


COMPUTERWO  ) 


OS  duel  shifts 
to  emphasis  on 
critical  apps 

Users  starting  to  cement 
plans  for  platform  features 

Bv  Christopher  Lindquist 

ATLANTA 


■  With  many  leading-edge  users  seemingly 
settled  on  their  future  desktops,  Microsoft 
Corp.  and  IBM  are  waiting  to  see  which  oper¬ 
ating  system  can  rack  up  the  most  mission- 
critical  applications  faster:  Windows  NT  or 
OS/2. 


Inside 


Comdex/Spring 
’93  and  its  sibling, 
Windows  World, 

teemed  with  activi¬ 
ty  last  week,  much 
of  it  focused  on  the 
operating  system 
wars.  Coverage 
starts  onpcige  6. 

GLOBAL 

NETWORKING 

AT&T  makes  his¬ 
tory  by  opening  the 
way  to  consistent 
business  network 
services  across 
sometimes  rocky 
foreign  terrain. 
MCI,  meanwhile, 
signs  up  local  car¬ 
riers  to  give  users 
more  choices  in  the 
dedicated-access 
portion  of  their 
long-distance  con¬ 
tracts.  Page  2 

RAID  SYSTEMS 

Storage  Tek’s 
window  of  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  its  still- 
unshipped  Iceberg 
RAID  storage  sys¬ 
tem  closed  further 
last  week  as  rival 
HDS  unveiled  a 
90G-byte  alterna¬ 
tive.  Page  4 

UP  NEXT 

In  an  admitted 
last-ditch  effort  to 
pump  some  life  in¬ 
to  the  NextStep 
market,  Next 
Chairman  Steve 
Jobs  introduced 
486  software  de¬ 
signed  to  extend 
his  firm’s  reach. 
Page  20 


At  last  week’s  an¬ 
nouncement  of  Win¬ 
dows  NT  at  Windows 
World,  Microsoft 
Chairman  Bill  Gates 
used  several  bleed¬ 
ing-edge  customers, 
including  JC  Penney 
Co.  and  National 
Westminster  Bank,  to 
showcase  sophisti¬ 
cated  applications  al¬ 
ready  ported  to  the 
Windows  NT  plat¬ 
form. 


In  his  keynote, 
James  A.  Cannavino, 
senior  vice  president 
of  Personal  Systems 
at  IBM,  pounded  on 
Microsoft’s  alleged 
weakness  in  informa¬ 
tion  systems  shops, 
pointing  out  that  no 
two  customer  shops 
are  the  same. 

“For  client/server 
to  function  as  a  sys¬ 
tem,  it  has  to  be  man- 
OSduel,  page  12 


Pen  initiatives  seek  to 
ignite  sluggish  market 

By  Michael  Fitzgerald  and  Lynda  Radosevich 

ATLANTA 


Seeing  the  handwriting  on  the  wall,  pen  com¬ 
puting  vendors  are  actively  exploring  ways  to 
jump-start  adoption  of  the  technology,  which 
thus  far  has  underwhelmed  most  observers. 

A  multicompany  consortium  last  week  re¬ 
vealed  a  specification,  called  Jot,  that  enables 
applications  to  share  handwritten  notes, 
sketches  and  other  pen-generated  data  among 
a  variety  of  platforms,  including  non-pen  sys¬ 
tems  [CW,  May  24] .  Such  communications  were 
not  previously  possible. 

The  group  is  led  by  Slate  Corp.,  Lotus  Devel¬ 
opment  Corp.  and  Microsoft  Corp. 

Pen  initiatives,  page  14 


IBM  sets  PS/2  update 

Lower  cost,  high-end  models  to  follow  ‘Green  PC,’  notebooks 


By  Michael  Fitzgerald 

SOMERS,  N.Y. 


As  IBM  puts  the  final  touches  on  two  new  note¬ 
books  and  its  first  “Green  PC,”  it  is  also  prepar- 
ing'for  a  major  refresh  of  its  premium  Personal 
System/2  line  and  the  U.S.  debut  of  its  Ambra 
clone  line  later  this  summer,  sources  close  to 
the  company  said. 

On  June  15,  IBM  is 
expected  to  show¬ 
case  the  ThinkPad 
500  subnotebook  and 
the  ThinkPad  350,  its 
first  true  notebook. 

Its  Green  PC,  initially 
to  be  called  the  Per¬ 
sonal  System/Energy 
Workstation,  will  be 
almost  identical  to  a 
product  IBM  dis¬ 
played  at  Comdex/ 

Fah ’92  [CW,  Nov.  24, 

1992], 

IBM  is  expected  to 
foUow  these  an¬ 
nouncements  with  a  much-needed  new  line  of 
lower  cost  PS/2s,  sources  said.  While  these  ma¬ 
chines  are  expected  to  be  Pentium-capable, 
IBM  initially  will  base  the  high-end  PS/2  Model 
105  on  its  Blue  Lightning  chip,  which  runs  at  33 
MHz  externally  and  99  MHz  internaUy.  IBM  will 


use  its  25/50-MHz  486SLC2  as  the  base  desktop 
processor  in  the  new  line. 

“They  desperately  need  to  update  the  PS/2 
line,  which  has  become  antiquated,”  said  John 
Dunkle,  president  of  WorkGroup  Technologies, 
Inc.,  a  market  research  firm  in  Hampton,  N.H. 

The  new  PS/2s  are  expected  to  include  a  va¬ 
riety  of  fresh  twists  for  IBM,  including  a  choice 
of  on-motherboard  Token  Ring  or  Ethernet; 

MWave,  a  multimedia 
digital  signal  proces¬ 
sor  developed  with 
Texas  Instruments, 
Inc.;  higher  speed 
versions  of  the  Micro 
Channel  Architec¬ 
ture  and  Extended 
Graphics  Array;  and 
the  new  modular 
SurePath  BIOS  co¬ 
developed  by  IBM  and 
Phoenix  Technol¬ 
ogies  Ltd. 

Personal  Comput¬ 
er  Memory  Card  In¬ 
ternational  Associa¬ 
tion  drives  will  be  an  option,  and  CD-ROM 
drives  will  come  standard  on  high-end  models. 

IBM  is  said  to  be  mulling  over  how  to  price 
the  new  PS/2s  to  keep  its  major  corporate 
accounts  from  jumping  to  the  ValuePoint  line 

IBM,  page  8 


Low  score 


IBM’s  PS/2  received  low  ratings  in  value  for 
the  dollar  in  a  recent  survey.  But  new  plans 
will  address  price  and  performance  issues. 

Response  base:  30  users 

LIKES: 

“Reliability 
and  IBM 
service.” 

DISLIKES: 

“Poor  price/ 
performance 
ratio." 


8.4 

8.2 

8.1 

8.0 

8.0 

6.3 


Software  compatibility 
Hardware  compatibility 
Performance 
Reliability 
Vendor  responsiveness 
Value  for  the  dollar 


1 m 

1 


Based  on  *a  I-to-10  scale  where  10  is  best 


Source:  Computerworld’ s  Buyers’  Scorecard 


CW  Chart:  Nancy  Kowal 


Bank  grabs  exec  to 


ByNellMargolis 

NEWYORK 


Bankers  Trust  Co.  has  lured  Aetna 
Life  &  Casualty  Co.  Chief  Technol¬ 
ogy  Officer  Lyle  Anderson  to  help 
shape  and  sharpen  the  bank’s  al¬ 
ready  strong  client/server  thrust. 

Three  days  into  his  newjob  as  a 
vice  president  at  Bankers  Trust’s 
Technology  Strategic  Planning  Di¬ 
vision,  Anderson  last  week  de¬ 
scribed  his  initial  agenda  as  “co¬ 
ordinating  the  use  of  the  bank’s 
many  PCs  and  LANs  to  better  serve 
our  strong  commitment  to  cli¬ 
ent/server.”  Anderson  will  have  worldwide,  cross-business 
responsibility,  said  managing  director  Michael  Packer,  to 
whom  Anderson  reports.  The  details  of  this  responsibility 
are  currently  beinghammered  out,  Packer  added. 

Industry  observers  widely  credit  Aetna  with  being  in  the 
vanguard  when  it  comes  to  using  information  technology  as 
a  business  enabler.  As  technology'  chief  at  Aetna,  Anderson 
earned  his  stripes  helping  to  roll  out  complex  projects  in  a 
large,  decentralized  financial  institution  setting.  “Lyle’s  ex- 

Source:  IDG  Research  Services,  Framingham,  Mass.,  f  ,, 

and  Dataquest,  Inc.,  San  Jose,  Calif.  -  Bank,  pO(JB  lb 


Bankers  Trust 

by  the  numbers 

IS  staff 

1,300 

Total  IS  budget 

$435M 

IS  staff  spending 

$ii5M  (includes 
salary,  benefits, 
travel) 

Number  of  PCs 

8,000  PCs  on  several 
hundred  LANs 


Source:  1992  Computerworld 
Premier  100 


On  second  look 


The  majority  of  IS  managers 
said  vendors  have  done  only 
a  fair  job  communicating 
the  business  benefits 
of  pen-based  computing  .  .  . 

Percent  of  respondents 
Base:  287 

Very  good  2% 

Poor 

Good  36% 

18% 

Fair 

44% 


.  .  .  which  is  one  reason 
some  analysts  have  revised 
their  once-optimistic 
revenue  estimates. 

1992 

WORLDWIDE  REVENUE 

Original  estimate  $77oM 
Revised  estimate  $27oM 


News 


WINDOWS  WORLD 

As  NetWare  users  grumble  about  an  April  beta  test  for 
Windows  NT,  Lithonia  Lighting  steps  back  from  OS/2 
2.0  to  Version  1.3,  pointingto  system  glitches  between 
2.0  and  LAN  Server  3.0.  Page  12.  And  as  Microsoft  de¬ 
velopers  toil  on  NT’s  next  generation  (page  1 0) ,  beta-test 
users  of  NT  and  OS/2  2.1  talk  about  their  deployment 
plans.  Page  1.  Also,  NT’s  impact  on  DEC’S  Alpha  PC 
plans  stirs  debate.  Page  8 

COMDEX/SPRING ’93 

Comdex  focuses  on  standards:  PC  Cards  —  credit-card- 
size  solid-state  devices  —  could  become  as  interchange¬ 
able  as  floppy  disks  soon,  thanks  to  recent  standards. 
Page  6.  A  consortium  of  vendors  agrees  on  a  standard 
for  sharing  handwritten  electronic  notes  among  various 
pen  and  non-pen  systems.  Page  1.  Seeking  standards, 
users  express  concern  about  implementing  Windows- 
based  mail  and  mail-enabled  applications.  Pa ge  1 4.  IBM 
will  launch  a  new  notebook,  the  Green  PC,  with  PS/2s 
and  Ambra  PCs  due  later  in  the  year.  Page  1 

CLIENT/SERVER 

Bankers  T rust  snags  a  former  Aetna  IS  exec  in  an  effort 
to  bolster  its  client/server  thrust.  Page  1 .  Mellon  Bank 
teams  with  HP  and  Oracle  on  a  client/server  bank  infor¬ 
mation  system.  Page  4.  Two  of  the  nation’s  largest  fu¬ 
tures  exchanges  embark  on  a  three-year  effort  to  devel¬ 
op  distributed  applications  for  their  trading-floor  and 
back-office  system.  Page  61 

DATABASES 

IS  managers  learn  that  they  must  balance  the  value  of 
hostinga  jumbo  database  against  the  personnel  and  re¬ 
source  costs  associated  with  managing  it.  Page  5  7 


Technical  Sections 


Advanced  T  echnology . 28 

Application  Development . 61 

Desktop  Computing . 39 

Enterprise  Networking . 49 

Large  Systems . 55 

Workgroup  Computing . 45 


BEST 

COMPUTER 

NEWSPAPER 

1992 


COMPUTER 
PRESS  ASSOCIATION 


Departments 


Calendar . 76 

Company  Index . 95 

Computer  Careers . 84 

Computer  Industry . 97 

Editorial/Viewpoint . 32,33 

Friday  Stock  Ticker . 96 

In  Depth . 81 

Marketplace . 90 


A  PUBLICATION  OF 

*IDG 


AT&T  eyes  global  telecom  focus 

Taps  partners  to  provide  common  features  and  services 


By  Joanie  M.  Wexler 

WASHINGTON,  D.C. 


AT&T  last  week  broke  fertile  ground  in  a  bid  to 
give  multinational  companies  consistent 
worldwide  network  service  currently  unavail¬ 
able  from  a  global  smatteringof  disjointed  tele¬ 
communications  providers. 

The  networking  giant  said  it  has 
begun  forming  partnerships  with 
the  world’s  public  telecommunica¬ 
tions  carriers  to  jointly  develop 
network  services  that  span  the 
globe  with  common  features  and 
performance  standards.  The  ini¬ 
tial  services  include  virtual  pri¬ 
vate  networks,  private  lines  and 
frame  relay. 

Users  and  analysts  said  the 
move  is  a  coup  for  large  companies 
and  a  turning  point  for  the  tele¬ 
communications  industry.  The  AT&T  offering 
that  will  result  from  the  partnerships  — 
dubbed  “WorldSource”  —  will  allow  global 


MCI  guards  ‘last  mile’ 


Keepingwith  the  current  “partnership” 
theme  in  the  telecommunications  indus¬ 
try,  MCI  Communications  Corp.  last  week 
linked  arms  with  22  local  network  service 
providers  —  includingtwo  cable  TV  firms 
— to  offer  customers  a  choice  of  carriers 
for  providingredundancy  in  the  “last 
mile”  of  their  networks. 

MCI  introduced  Custom  Access,  a  ser¬ 
vice  that  makes  MCI  responsible  for  up¬ 
time  in  the  local-access  portion  of  its  cus¬ 
tomers’  corporate  networks.  The  service 
will  let  users  buy  dedicated  local-access 
services  from  any  mix  of  carriers  provid¬ 
ing  access  into  their  building,  rather  than 
havingto  negotiate  with  multiple  ven¬ 
dors,  MCI  said. 

This  could  be  initially  useful  to  those 
companies  in  metropolitan  areas  al¬ 
ready  enj  oying  competition  in  the  local 
loop,  said  Mike  Kilbaqe,  senior  adviser  to 
the  International  Communications  Asso¬ 
ciation  user  group.  “For  a  carrier  to  go 
out  and  do  the  legwork  to  uncover  the  al¬ 
ternative  access  options  into  your  build- 
ingis  commendable,”  he  said. 

The  MCI  service  comes  with  a  guaran¬ 
tee  that  covers  about  1,200  buildings  in 
the  U.S.  If  a  dedicated  access  line  fails  for 
more  than  one  minute,  MCI  said  it  will  re¬ 
fund  one  month’s  circuit  charges  to  the 
customer. 

Traditionally,  customers  have  left  it  up 
to  their  long-distance  carrier  to  choose  a 
local  provider,  and  usually  the  carrier 
has  gone  to  the  regulated  phone  compa¬ 
ny,  said  Ken  McGee,  a  vice  president  at 
research  firm  Gartner  Group,  Inc.  in 
Stamford,  Conn.  But  “when  customers 
don’t  properly  negotiate  the  access  por¬ 
tion  of  their  contracts,  they’re  leaving 
money  on  the  table,”  he  said. 

— JoanieM.  Wexler 


firms  to  go  to  one  source  for  a  cohesive  set  of 
dialing  plans  and  services.  Firms  will  also  gain 
cross-country  billing  in  the  country,  language 
and  currency  of  their  choice. 

“We  don’t  want  to  see  different  standards 
and  interfaces  across  the  globe,”  said  Andy 
Sokolov,  senior  vice  president  of  telecommuni¬ 
cations  and  computer  operations  at  PaineWeb- 
ber,  Inc.,  a  WorldSource  test  site. 

Bob  Benmosche,  a  PaineWebber 
executive  vice  president,  added: 
“It  is  clear  now  that,  with  a  man¬ 
aged  focus,  we’ll  begin  to  expand 
our  global  exposure  and  operate 
in  a  lot  more  countries.” 

Previously,  long-distance  carri¬ 
ers  such  as  AT&T  have  taken  on 
the  Postal  Telephone  and  Tele¬ 
graph  (PTT)  administration  nego¬ 
tiation  headaches  for  customers 
in  attempts  to  provide  quasi-one- 
stop  shopping.  However,  the  U.S.-based  carri¬ 
ers  had  little  control  over  service  availability 
or  quality  and  no  way  to  consolidate  billing. 

“The  big  difference  here  is  that  AT&T  is  part- 
neringwith  the  PTTs  for  the  services  I  need,  in¬ 
stead  of  just  championing  my  cause,”  said  Mi¬ 
chael  Radcliff,  vice  president  of  corporate 
information  systems  at  Honeywell,  Inc.  in  Min¬ 
neapolis.  Honeywell  also  intends  to  participate 
in  the  WorldSource  pilot. 

Currently,  Radcliff  said,  network  services 
abroad  either  “aren’t  available  where  we  need 
them,  they  are  not  affordable  or  the  quality  is 
not  up  to  par.” 

One  user  said  he  anticipates  an  eventual  re¬ 
duction  in  global  telecommunications  costs. 
John  Faccibene,  vice  president  of  telecommuni¬ 
cations  at  brokerage  firm  Garban  Ltd.,  said, 
“Now  it  costs  twice  as  much  to  call  from  a  for¬ 
eign  country  into  the  U.S.  [than  the  other  way 
around]  .I’m  bound  to  pay  less  with  one  virtual 
global  connection.” 

Daniel  Briere,  president  of  consultancy  Tele- 
Choice,  Inc.  in  Verona,  N.J.,  said  WorldSource 
is  “probably  the  most  significant  [telecom¬ 
munications]  event  that  will  happen  for  big 
companies  this  year.  People  are  running  appli¬ 
cations  here  that  they  can’t  use  in  other  coun¬ 
tries”  without  the  proper  network  support. 

Fruits  of  the  first  two  AT&T  alliances — with 
Japan’s  Kokusai  Denshin  Denwa  Co.  and  Singa¬ 
pore  Telecom  —  will  be  available  in  North 
America  and  the  Asia/Pacific  region  later  this 
year.  PTT  partnerships  are  slated  to  expand  to 
Europe  early  next  year. 


Corrections 


•A  chart  in  the  May  24  issue  incorrectly 
noted  the  recommended  and  minimum 
memory  requirements  for  OS/2  2.1.  The 
actual  numbers  should  be  4M  bytes  mini¬ 
mum  and  6M  bytes  recommended. 

•An  item  in  the  May  17  issue  misidenti- 
fied  the  division  of  LBM  working  with 
Emass  Storage  System  Solutions  to  hook 
up  the  RISC  System/6000  with  Emass’  da- 
ta-storage  systems.  The  correct  IBM  di¬ 
vision  is  Technology  Consulting  and  Ser¬ 
vices  in  Dallas. 


2  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


HERE'S  WHERE  WE  LEAVE 
THE  COMPETITION. 


7 


©1993  Syncsort  Incorporated 


201-930-8200 


News 


Legent  unfurls  usage  pricing 

License  server  will  capture  billing 


By  Gary  H.  Anthes 


Responding  to  customer  de¬ 
mands  for  increased  simplicity, 
fairness  and  flexibility,  Legent 
Corp.  is  developing  usage- 
based  pricing  options  for  its 
systems  management  software 
products. 

Within  a  year,  the  company 
will  be  able  to  bill  customers 
based  on  their  actual  product 
use,  as  determined  by  statistics 
captured  by  a  “license  server,” 
accordingto  Legent  executives. 

The  announcement  comes  in 
the  wake  of  IBM’s  recent  move 
to  experiment  with  usage- 
based,  or  metered,  pricing  [CW, 
May  24].  Legent  said  it  has  been 
workingon  the  concept  for  some 
time  and  is  not  among  the  firms 
working  with  IBM  to  flesh  out 
the  idea. 

Legent  stopped  short  of  say¬ 
ing  which  products  might  offer 
the  option,  how  “usage”  would 
be  defined  or  how  the  approach 
might  be  administered.  Howev¬ 
er,  the  company  said  it  will  likely 
build  its  license  server  —  which 


could  take  feeds  from  any  Le¬ 
gent  product  —  using  license 
management  software  from 
either  Highland  Software  in  Pa¬ 
lo  Alto,  Calif.,  or  Gradient  Tech¬ 
nologies,  Inc.  in  Marlboro,  Mass. 

“We  wall  roll  out  [the  license 


•  Per  log-on 

•  Per  transaction 

•  Per  job  submission 

•  Per  use/time  period 


BY  USER  METRICS 


•  Number  of  users  connected 

•  Number  of  potential  users 

•  Number  of  concurrent  users 

•  Number  of  named  users 

•  Number  of  active  users 


Source:  Open  User  Recommended  Solutions 
consortium,  Philadelphia 

server]  with  new  products 
phased  in  over  the  next  18 
months,”  said  Robert  Yellin, 
chief  technology  officer  at  the 
Vienna,  Va.-based  systems  man¬ 
agement  software  firm. 


Yellin  estimated  that  about 
half  of  Legent’s  customers  favor 
some  kind  of  metered  billing, 
while  the  others  favor  more  tra¬ 
ditional  approaches  based  on 
measures  fixed  at  contract  ne¬ 
gotiation  time. 

Devilish  details 

While  Legent  said  it  is  easy  to 
define  the  goal  of  metered  bill¬ 
ing —  fairness  to  both  parties  — 
the  devil  is  in  the  details. 

Kim  Strohm,  Legent’s  senior 
director  of  planning  and  opera¬ 
tions,  said  usage-based  billing 
“may  be  the  ultimate  in  fair¬ 
ness”  because  customers  pay 
for  just  what  is  used  and  pre¬ 
sumably  for  the  value  received. 
However,  Strohm  said,  it  does 
not  necessarily  satisfy  a  key 
customer  demand  for  budget 
predictability.  “I  don’t  think 
companies  want  their  software 
budgets  to  act  like  telephone 
bills,”  she  said. 

“It  does  not  sound  appealing 
to  me  personally,”  said  David 
Quigley,  director  of  computer 
services  at  Minneapolis-based 
Target  Stores,  a  national  chain 
of  550  discount  outlets.  He  said 


he  fears  that  unpredictable 
spikes  in  retail  sales  or  other 
corporate  activity  would  give 
rise  to  unpleasant  peaks  in  his 
software  invoices. 

Legent  user  H.  William  R. 
Townsend,  manager  of  comput¬ 
ing  services  operations  at  Air 
Products  and  Chemicals,  Inc.  in 
Allentown,  Pa.,  said  the  concept 
of  usage-based  billing  appeals 


to  him.  “The  advantage  is  you 
pay  for  what  you  get,”  he  said. 
“The  disadvantage  is  you  may 
not  be  able  to  predict  your  long¬ 
term  costs  because  now  you 
have  to  predict  two  variables  — 
price  changes  and  use  chang¬ 
es.”  Townsend  said  Legent  and 
other  vendors  must  find  a  way 
to  even  out  peaks  and  valleys  in 
billed  usage  to  ensure  custom¬ 
ers  have  budget  predictability. 

Mid-Atlantic  correspondent 
Thomas  Hoffman  contributed  to 
this  report. 


Long  live  simplicity 


While  Legent  explores  us¬ 
age-based  billing,  it  is  more 
than  a  year  into  a  program 
offering  enterprise  licenses. 

Under  this  type  of  arrange¬ 
ment,  large  customers  sign 
multiyear  contracts  for  es¬ 
sentially  unlimited  use  of  a 
basket  of  Legent  products. 
The  user  sends  in  a  single 
check  each  year  for  an 
amount  known  in  advance. 

Target  Stores  just  signed  a 
four-year  enterprisewide 
agreement  for  use  of  10  Le¬ 


gent  products.  “Nowwe  can 
add  Unix  boxes  out  [in  the 
stores],  upgrade  our  main¬ 
frame  or  add  more  stores, 
and  it  doesn’t  matter,”  said 
Carol  Flaig,  general  manag¬ 
er  of  network  systems. 

Flaig  hailed  such  umbrella 
agreements  as  the  wave  of 
the  future  for  Target  Stores 
and  its  software  vendors  and 
said  she  hoped  they  would 
end  vendor  disputes,  unpre¬ 
dictable  bills  and  skyrocket¬ 
ing  prices. — Gary  H.  A  nthes 


HDS  unveils 
smaller  DASDs 

By  Jean  S.  Bozman 

PALO  ALTO,  CALIF. 


Hitachi  Data  Systems  Corp.  (HDS)  shrank  its 
IBM-compatible  disk  drives  last  week,  squeez¬ 
ing  the  equivalent  of  three  IBM-compatible 
3390  Model  3  drives  into  a  single  90G-byte  cabi¬ 
net.  It  will  replace  the  year-old  HDS  7390  line, 
to  be  discontinued  by  year’s  end,  HDS  said. 

The  newdevice,  the  HDS  7693  Disk  Array,  has 
a  lG-byte  cache  memory  and  will  ship  by  July 
for  about  $1 1  per  megabyte  of  memoiy,  analysts 
said.  If  it  includes  the  7690  controller,  the  HDS 
7693  costs  $14  per  megabyte.  A  270G-byte  com¬ 
panion  storage  product,  the  HDS  7699  Disk  Ar¬ 
ray,  is  due  to  ship  in  third-quarter  1994.  The 
high-end  product  will  compete  with  IBM’s  tri¬ 
ple-density  3390  Model  9,  which  IBM  announced 
in  May  for  a  June  delivery  [CW,  April  12] . 

Both  the  IBM  and  HDS  triple-density  disk 
drives  will  sell  for  roughly  $4  to  $5  per  mega¬ 
byte,  industry  analysts  said.  However,  the  high- 
capacity  HDS  and  IBM  units  will  provide  slower 
performance  than  the  base  models,  they  said. 
Both  the  HDS  7693  and  the  HDS  7699  will  use  a 
compact  6'/2-in.  disk. 

The  triple-density  IBM  3390-compatible 
disks  could  blunt  the  appeal  of  Storage  Tech¬ 
nology  Corp.’s  Iceberg  RAID  5-plus  array  in 
large  IBM  mainframe  shops  for  those  seeking 
inexpensive,  high-capacity  storage.  Those 
seeking  error  recovery  and  parity  may  decide 
to  wait  for  Storage  Tek's  twice-delayed  Iceberg, 
which  is  set  to  ship  later  this  year  [CW,  May  24] 


Users  are  expected  to  benefit  from  the  HDS 
subsystem’s  smaller  footprint  because  a  cabi¬ 
net  housing  90G  bytes  of  memory  and  a  7690 
controller  takes  up  14.4  sq  ft.  Bob  Prosen,  di¬ 
rector  of  capacity  and  contingency  planning  at 
Sprint  Corp.,  said  the  more  compact  units 
would  require  less  than  half  the  floor  space  of 
IBM  3390  models  holding  the  same  amount  of 
data.  Sprint  is  testingthe  7693. 

RAID  stepping-stones 

HDS  said  it  plans  a  stand-alone  redundant  ar¬ 
rays  of  inexpensive  disks  (RAID)  product  for 
the  IBM-compatible  mainframe  market  for  the 
mid-1990s  but  gave  no  details.  Its  Single  Large 
Expensive  Disk  (SLED)  or  current  direct-ac¬ 
cess  storage  device  technology,  will  migrate  in¬ 
to  wrhat  HDS  termed  its  Small  Technologically 
Advanced  Reliable  (STAR)  disk  technology, 
wilich  is  a  half-step  to  full  RAID. 

HDS’  current  line  supports  RAID-1  mirroring 
and  RAID-3  high-speed  data  transfer  in  the 
backup  system  for  its  HDS  7900-6  semiconduc¬ 
tor  disk  product.  Hitachi  Ltd.  is  already  ship- 
pinga  unit  in  Japan  that  supports  RAID  3,  RAID 
4  and  RAID  5  software  with  a  20M  byt  e/sec.  data 
transfer  rate,  HDS  said. 

But  HDS’  RAID  offerings  are  far  from  com¬ 
plete.  “The  reason  wiiy  they’re  stressing  this 
acronym  STAR  is  that  they  would  like  people  to 
get  the  message  that  it’s  between  SLED  and 
RAID,”  said  Omri  Serlin,  president  of  ITOM  In¬ 
ternational  Co.  in  Los  Altos,  Calif.  “But  they 
don’t  have  a  RAID  offeringyet.  That  will  take  a 
considerable  amount  of  re-engineering.” 

IBM  is  expected  to  ship  a  RAID  product  in 
early  1994,  said  Paul  Wolfstaetter,  a  program  di¬ 
rector  at  Gartner  Group,  Inc.’s  Large  Computer 
Strategies  Group.  HDS  is  expected  to  ship  its 
answer  to  that  about  12  to  18  months  later. 


Client/server 

Bank  eases  data  access 


ByNellMargolis 

NEW  ORLEANS 


Mellon  Bank  Corp.’s  Financial  In¬ 
stitutions  Outsourcing  (FIO) 
Group  is  poised  to  unveil  a  client/ 
server  system  aimed  at  dispersing 
highly  targeted  information 
across  a  bank’s  entire  organiza¬ 
tion.  The  rollout  is  proceeding  de¬ 
spite  the  imminent  sale  of  the 
group’s  corporate  parent,  Mellon 
Information  Systems,  to  an  un¬ 
known  bidder. 

Currently  in  beta  testing  at 
three  unidentified  Mellon  FIO 
client  banks,  the  product  will  allow 
users  to  access  whatever  data 
serves  their  individual  needs  from 
any  banking  application,  regard¬ 
less  of  platform  or  geographical  lo¬ 
cation,  a  Mellon  spokesman  said. 

Mellon  staged  a  mini  demon¬ 
stration  at  the  American  Bankers 
Association’s  annual  National  Op¬ 
erations  and  Automation  Conven¬ 
tion  here. 

Mellon  IS  in  Pittsburgh  was  put 
on  the  block  earlier  this  year  in  the 
wake  of  its  $31  billion  parent’s  re¬ 
dedication  to  core  banking  activi¬ 
ties  [CW,  March  22], 

Ownership  uncertainties  not¬ 
withstanding,  Mellon  FIO  has  lined 
up  an  august  list  of  strategic  part¬ 


ners  to  deliver  the  bank  informa¬ 
tion  management  system  —  code- 
named  InformEnt,  according  to  a 
source  close  to  the  bank — in  early 
1994. 

Hewlett-Packard  Co.  will  bring 
its  HP  9000  Unix  workstations:  Or¬ 
acle  Corp.  will  supply  the  database 
engine;  Powersoft  Corp.  will  give 
the  development  tools;  and  Indigo 
Software  Corp.  will  supply  the  re¬ 
port  writing  tool. 

Well  worth  the  risk 

HP  account  representative  Don 
Lind  said  any  qualms  his  firm 
might  have  felt  about  taking  on  an 
unknowTi  strategic  ally  faded  in 
the  face  of  Mellon  IS’  potential 
clout  in  a  quickly  massingmarket. 

“A  system  like  this  is  wiiat  cus¬ 
tomers  are  askingfor,  and  no  one’s 
really  supplying  it  yet  —  not  in  one 
package,”  he  said.  “Someone  has 
to  deliver  it.  Whoever  buys  Mellon 
IS  is  going  to  wmnt  to  put  a  lot  of 
resources  behind  this  project  or 
they’ll  risk  losing  market  share.” 

Mellon  IS,  Lind  noted,  has  “both 
the  software  expertise  to  create 
the  offering  and  established  rela¬ 
tionships  with  about  200  customer 
banks  to  sell  into.  Lots  of  compa¬ 
nies  have  one;  how  many  have 
both?” 


4  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Rick  Munger 
Director  of  Information 
Resources  for  Oneida 


CA90s 


CA's  Computing 
Architecture 
For  The  90s. 


“When  we  decided  to  downsize,  I  was  pleasantly  surprised  to  see  that  CA’s  a  leading 
AS/400  software  vendor.  The  fact  that  they  offer  the  leading  AS/400  manufacturing  and 
warehouse  software  made  it  much  easier  for  us.  It’s  always  better  to  go  with 
somebody  you  already  know  and  trust.” 

We’ve  always  gone  wherever  our  clients  need  us. 

AS/400.  UNIX.  OS/2.  Whenever  an  important  new  platform  emerges,  we’re 
always  there  to  support  it.  You  see,  unlike  most  software  companies,  we’re  tally  indepen¬ 
dent.  We  support  more  hardware  platforms  and  operating  systems  than  any  other  soft¬ 
ware  company  in  the  world.  After  all,  when  it  comes  to  deciding  CmQMPI ITFP* 

which  are  best,  there’s  only  one  real  authority  JaSSO'4* 

•  Software  superior  by  design. 

©  Computer  Associates  International,  Inc.,  One  Computer  Associates  Plaza,  Islandia,  NY  11788-7000. 1-800  CALL  CAI.  All  product  names  referenced  herein  are  trademarks  of  their  respective  companies. 


News:  Comdex/Spring ’93 


Novell  to  acquire  object  maker 

Novell,  Inc.  has  announced  plans  to  acquire  Salt  Lake 
City-based  Serius  Corp.  for  $17.3  million.  Novell 
bought  a  small  equity  stake  in  the  object-oriented 
tools  company  early  last  year.  Serius  has  a  library  of 
objects  that  nonprogrammers  can  use  to  create  appli¬ 
cations  by  pointing  and  clicking.  Applications  built 
with  Serius  objects  can  be  ported  to  Apple  Computer, 
Inc.  Macintosh,  Microsoft  Corp.  Windows  and  Unix  en¬ 
vironments;  support  for  OS/2  and  Windows  NT  is  also 
planned.  Novell  said  it  is  buyingthe  companybecause 
Serius’  building-block  approach  allows  users  to  ac¬ 
cess  and  build  vertical  software  solutions  faster. 

Public  access  to  documents  debated 

Rep.  Edward  Markey  (D-Mass.),  chairman  of  the 
House  Subcommittee  on  Telecommunications  and  Fi¬ 
nance,  last  week  asked  the  U.S.  Securities  and 
Exchange  Commission  (SEC)  to  explore  makingcor- 
porate  financial  statements  in  the  SEC’s  electronic 
data  gathering,  analysis  and  retrieval  system  avail¬ 
able  free  to  the  public  via  the  Internet.  Critics  have 
complained  that  the  SEC’s  current  plan  to  make  fil¬ 
ings  available  electronically  via  commercial  informa¬ 
tion  services  providers  interferes  with  the  public’s 
right  to  free  and  easy  access.  The  SEC  has  countered 
that  it  is  not  its  business,  nor  does  it  have  the  budget, 
to  offer  electronic  access  to  the  65G-byte  database. 

Utility  adopts  client/server 

Pacific  Gas  &  Electric  Co.  (PG&E)  in  San  Francisco  is 
embarking  on  the  client/server  road,  starting  with  a 
rework  of  its  massive  Customer  Information  System. 
PG&E,  with  20,000  PCs  and  400  Banyan  Systems,  Inc. 
local-area  networks,  is  reconstructing  its  customer 
information  architecture,  going  to  Microsoft  Corp. 
Windows  NT  on  the  desktop  and  IBM  DB2  on  its  hosts. 
This  architecture  will  replace  DOS,  Windows  and  a 
homegrown  flat-file  database  on  the  host.  PG&E’s  in- 
house  team  is  working  with  Andersen  Consulting, 
Microsoft  and  Mozart  Systems  Corp.  on  the  multi¬ 
year  development  effort. 

Fedex  IS  VP  joins  BellSouth 

Federal  Express  Corp.  Corporate  Systems  Develop¬ 
ment  Vice  President  Jon  Ricker,  whose  efforts  helped 
Fedex  to  a  prestigious  Malcolm  Baldrige  National 
Quality  Award  in  1990,  is  on  the  move  from  transpor¬ 
tation  to  communications.  Effective  June  15,  Ricker 
will  be  assistant  chief  information  officer  at  Bell¬ 
South  Telecommunications,  Inc.  in  Atlanta. 

Packing  more  routing  punch 

McData  Corp.  has  announced  products  that  will  re¬ 
portedly  allow  a  Systems  Network  Architecture  (SNA) 
cluster  controller,  such  as  McData’s  LinkMaster  fam¬ 
ily,  to  encapsulate  IBM  SNA  transmissions  into  Trans¬ 
mission  Control  Protocol/Internet  Protocol  (TCP/IP) 
packets.  This  would  leave  more  router  resources  for 
handlingTCP/IP  traffic,  McData  said. 

SHORTTAKES  Kalpana,  Inc.  said  last  week  it  will  devel¬ 
op  products  that  integrate  its  Ethernet  switching 
technology  into  Hewlett-Packard  Co.’s  lOBase-T 
smart  hub _ Electronic  Data  Systems  Corp.  an¬ 

nounced  last  week  that  it  will  offer  a  $399  suite  based 
on  software  derived  from  Lotus  Development  Corp., 
Software  Publishing  Corp.  and  WordPerfect  Corp., 
but  it  will  be  available  only  to  Armed  Forces  sites. . . . 
IBM  announced  Network  Design  and  Analysis/2,  an 
OS/2  version  of  a  host  program  that  generates  routing 
tables  for  SNA  and  Advanced  Peer-to-Peer  Network- 
ingor  a  mixture  of  both. 

News  shorts,  page  16 
6  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


When  overnight  isn’t  good  enough 


By  Lynda  Radosevich 

ATLANTA 


Not  to  be  one-upped  by  new  com¬ 
munications  technologies,  power 
users  Federal  Express  Corp.  and 
United  Parcel  Service,  Inc.  dis¬ 
played  products  of  their  own  at 
Comdex/Spring’93  last  week.  Both 
firms  showed  attendees  new  fea¬ 
tures  on  systems  that  help  custom¬ 
ers  ship  and  track  their  packages. 

One  feature  that  distinguished 
their  goods  from  the  rest  of  those 
displayed  on  the  show  floor  was 
price:  The  shippingcompanies  will 
install  the  hardware  and  software 
at  customer  sites  for  free. 

Fedex  unveiled  a  new  hardware 
and  software  system  designed  for 
small  businesses  and  remote  of¬ 
fices  that  ship  as  little  as  one  pack¬ 
age  a  day.  Called  Powership  3,  the 
system  comprises  an  Intel  Corp. 
80386-based  PC  from  NEC  Tech¬ 
nologies,  Inc.,  customized  DOS- 
based  communications  and  graph¬ 
ical  database  software,  a  printer 
for  reports  and  a  small  printer  for 
bar-code  labels. 

Customers  can  enter  up  to 
32,000  addresses  into  the  data¬ 
base,  print  their  own  labels  rather 
than  handwriting  them  and  keep 
track  of  their  shipping  expenses 


By  Michael  Fitzgerald 


A  spurt  of  activity  in  the  PC  Card 
market  signals  that  vendors  be¬ 
lieve  the  new  standard  has  been 
accepted  by  the  market  and  is  now 
stable. 

PC  Cards,  the  short  name  for  sol¬ 
id-state  storage  devices  that  ad¬ 
here  to  the  Personal  Computer 
Memory  Card  International  Asso¬ 
ciation  (PCMCIA)  standard,  now 
are  used  mostly  as  random-access 
memory  upgrade  cards.  They  can 
also  accommodate  peripherals, 
such  as  modems  and  local-area 
network  adapters,  as  well  as  soft¬ 
ware  applications  or  even  hard¬ 
ware  and  software  combinations. 

Because  of  PC  Cards’  speed, 
small  size  and  low-power  draw, 
vendors  are  building  drives  that 
support  the  cards  into  most  porta¬ 
ble  computers  today. 

“PCMCIA  is  the  bus  of  mobile 
computing  and  will  have  the  same 
beneficial  impact  that  the  AT  bus 
has  had  for  desktops,”  said  Leslie 
Fiering,  an  analyst  at  Gartner 
Group,  Inc.  in  Stamford,  Conn. 

But  the  market  for  PC  Cards  has 
taken  a  while  to  gain  momentum, 
in  part  because  the  cards  were  not 


and  volumes.  Also,  customers  can 
dial  into  Fedex  shipment  informa¬ 
tion  databases  and  track  pack¬ 
ages  via  modem. 

For  customers  interested  in  just 
the  tracking  capabilities,  Fedex 
handed  out  free  DOS  and  Microsoft 
Corp.  Windows  communications 
software  for  dialing  into  the  track¬ 
ing  databases. 

“It’s  fantastic,”  said  Phillip  Te- 
treault,  a  consultant  at  start-up 
Perisol  Technologies  in  Raleigh, 
N.C.,  which  develops  peripherals 
for  the  banking  industry.  “Using 
this,  when  you  ship  something  and 
the  recipient  says  he  never  got  it, 
you  can  tell  him  right  away  when  it 
got  there,  who  signed  for  it  —  ev¬ 
erything.” 

Slimmed -down  version 

The  Powership  3  is  an  updated  ver¬ 
sion  of  a  bulkier  system  that  Fedex 
has  been  shipping  to  high-volume 
customers  since  1991.  Currently, 
more  than  25,000  customers  have 
the  automatic  shipping  and  track¬ 
ing  system,  and  packages  sent  us¬ 
ing  the  system  represent  half  of 
the  1.8  million  packages  Fedex 
sends  each  night,  said  Laurie 
Tucker,  vice  president  of  customer 
automation  and  invoicing. 

Fedex  is  rolling  out  Powership  3 


as  easy  to  swap  as  floppy  disks. 
Recently,  the  PCMCIA  released 
Version  2.01  of  its  socket  services 
standard,  which  controls  how  data 
on  the  cards  is  read,  and  appears 
to  have  stabilized  the  standard. 

“It’s  time  —  the  standard  is  real¬ 
ly  there  now,”  said  Andrew  M.  Sey- 
bold,  editor  in  chief  of  “The  Out- 


Source:  Frost  &  Sullivan/Market  Intelligence,  Mountain 
View,  Calif. 

look  on  Professional  Computing,” 
a  newsletter  in  Brookdale,  Calif. 

Recent  developments  include 
the  addition  of  PCMCIA  drives  by 
an  array  of  notebook  makers  as 
well  as  some  desktop  vendors. 


in  regional  markets,  starting  with 
the  Dallas,  Chicago,  Kansas  City, 
Minneapolis  and  Phoenix  areas, 
and  is  targeting  nationwide  use  for 
next  year. 

Meanwhile,  UPS’  booth  dis¬ 
played  updates  to  the  company’s 
shippingand  trackingsystems. 

Called  Maxitrac  and  Maxiship, 
the  system  includes  a  386-based 
PC,  separate  bar-code  printers  for 
scannable  labels  and  reports,  soft¬ 
ware,  a  14.4  bit/sec.  modem  and  an 
electronic  scale.  Currently,  UPS 
has  26,000  customers  using  its 
DOS-based  tracking  software,  and 
the  company  plans  to  offer  a  Win¬ 
dows  version  “soon,”  according  to 
Phil  Nardomarino,  applications 
manager  for  customer  systems. 

The  system,  which  costs  UPS 
$4,000  to  $5,000  per  site,  is  worth 
the  expense  because  it  reduces  the 
calls  that  UPS  telephone  opera¬ 
tors  must  process  and  cuts  the 
amount  of  information  that  must 
be  keyed  into  the  company’s  data¬ 
base,  Nardomarino  said. 

UPS  customer  Dennis  Nugent, 
warehouse  manager  at  W.  W. 
Granger,  an  industrial  supply  com¬ 
pany  in  Chicago,  said  the  Maxiship 
system  replaced  a  manual  system 
that  handled  3,000  packages  per 
day. 


For  example,  Digital  Equipment 
Corp.  announced  that  it  will  offer 
PCMCIA  drives  as  an  option  in  its 
servers.  Hewlett-Packard  Co.  is  ex¬ 
pected  to  follow  suit  tomorrow  for 
its  new  Vectra  desktops.  IBM  PC 
Co.  is  expected  to  make  PCMCIA 
drives  standard  on  its  new  “Green 
PC”  and  will  also  offer  them  as  an 
option  in  its  new  Personal  Sys- 
tem/2s  (see  story  page  1). 

Beneficial  actions 

Also  in  PCMCIA’s  favor  is  a  recent 
decision  by  Intel  Corp.  to  give  the 
standards  body  its  Exchangeable 
Card  Architecture,  which  elimi¬ 
nates  the  potential  for  two  incom¬ 
patible  standards  to  develop. 

Sources  also  said  IBM,  Toshiba 
Corp.,  Seagate  Technology,  Inc., 
Maxtor  Corp.  and  SunDisk  plan  to 
announce  in  mid-June  that  their 
PCMCIA  storage  devices  will  be 
fully  compatible  with  one  another, 
which  should  make  the  PCMCIA- 
ATA,  or  AT  architecture,  a  de  facto 
storage  standard.  The  companies 
refused  to  comment. 

Numerous  vendors  are  making 
cards,  and  some  new  players  will 
soon  bet  on  the  market,  including 
Simple  Technologies,  Inc.,  a  fast- 
growing  maker  of  RAM  upgrade 
cards.  Byyear’s  end,  “We  will  build 
modems  and  adapter  cards  for  the 
PCMCIA  market,”  promised  Mike 
Moshayedi,  president  of  Simple 
Technologies. 


Vendor  flurry  entrenches 
PC  Card  acceptance 


MOTORS  Detroit 


general 

EXXON  Irving,  'exas . . 

FORD  MOTOR  Deo.W*j 
1NTU  BUSINESS  MACHtN 
GENERAL  ELECTRIC 

MOBIL  Fairfox,^0-  _ - 

PHILIP  MO 

c,  nu  PONT  DE  NEMO 


iHHI 


8  of  the  top  10  ‘Fortune  500’  companies  are  using  0racle7 

Here’s  what  our  customers  are  saying  about  Oracle! 


“It’s  the  driving  force  behind  our  most  sophisticated  applications.” 
“You  can’t  break  it,  it  just  keeps  running  and  running.” 


“It’s  the  best  Client/Server  solution  out  there.” 
“We  needed  a  truly  open  solution:  Oracle7  is  it.” 


To  find  out  more  about  why  companies  of  all  sizes  are  choosing  Oracle7.  call 
us.  We’ll  send  you  in-depth  analysis  from  IDC  and  Aberdeen,  and  you  11  see  for 
yourself  why  everyone  is  so  excited.  1-800-633-1071  Ext. 8120 


©1993  Oracle  Corporation.  Fortune  is  a  trademark  of  Time  Inc. 


News:  Comdex/Spring  ‘93 


Alpha  PC 

revs  up  for 
Windows  NT 

By  Michael  Vizard 

ATLANTA 


Digital  Equipment  Corp.  last  week  sought  to  in¬ 
vigorate  its  desktop  systems  drive  with  the  un¬ 
veiling  of  the  $6,795  DECpc  AXP  150  system. 
The  Comdex/Spring  ’93  arrival  of  DEC’S  long- 
awaited  Windows  NT  platform  is  likely  to  serve 
as  a  harbinger  of  change  that  wall  reverberate 
throughout  its  entire  product  line  [CW,  May  17]. 

DEC  faces  numerous  product-positioning  ob¬ 
stacles  in  its  quest  to  market  Windows  NT 
alongside  OpenVMS  and  the  Open  Software 
Foundation’s OSF/1  systems.  And  DECwillalso 
have  to  overcome  a  late  jump  out  of  the  Win¬ 
dows  NT  starting  gate,  analysts  said. 

At  Comdex,  Microsoft  said  it  will  initially  ship 
CD-ROMs  that  will  have  binaries  for  Intel  Corp. 
and  Mips  Technologies,  Inc.  systems.  Binaries 
for  DEC’S  Alpha  AXP  processor  will  be  added 
to  those  CD-ROMs  when  they  become  available. 

This  lack  of  initial  support  for  Alpha  binaries 
means  developers  wall  be  concentrating  most 
of  their  efforts  on  Intel  and  Mips  platforms 
ahead  of  Alpha  platforms,  said  Chris  Christian¬ 
sen,  an  analyst  at  International  Data  Corp.  in 
Framingham,  Mass. 

I11  the  works 

Microsoft  said  2,000  commercial  applications 
are  currently  under  development;  more  than 
500  will  ship  by  year’s  end.  DEC,  meanwhile, 
said  300  commercial  Windows  NT  applications 
will  be  recompiled  for  Alpha  AXP  systems  this 
year.  And  by  June  of  next  year,  there  should  be 
1,500  Windows  NT  applications  available  for 
Alpha,  said  John  J.  Rando,  DEC  vice  president 
of  multivendor  customer  services. 

But  unless  DEC  can  actually  deliver  that  in¬ 
stalled  base,  many  software  vendors  are  likely 
to  follow  the  same  path  as  Frame  Technology 
Corp.  in  San  Jose,  Calif.  Frame  has  decided  to 
forgo  both  the  Alpha  AXP  and  the  Mips  plat¬ 
forms  because  the  cost  of  supporting  these 
platforms  is  not  likely  to  be  justifed  by  the  vol¬ 
ume,  according  to  V.  Siva  Kuma,  general  man¬ 
ager  at  Frame’s  Desktop  Products  Division. 

As  a  result  of  these  market  realities,  DEC 
said  it  expects  about  90%  of  the  Windows  NT 
systems  it  sells  will  actually  be  Intel  systems. 
“We  have  to  be  realistic,”  said  Enrico  Pesatori, 
DEC  vice  president  and  general  manager  for 
the  PC  business  unit. 

Intel  “has  [many]  companies  behind  it,  and 
[DEC]  can’t  outrank  that”  with  software  ven¬ 
dors,  Pesatori  said. 

DEC  said  it  will  offer  OpenVMS  and  OSF/1  on 
its  newr  PC  systems  by  the  end  of  this  year.  But 
those  Extended  Industry  Standard  Architec¬ 
ture  bus  systems  will  be  offered  only  as  servers 
that  will  be  comparable  to  a  $1,495  system  run¬ 
ning  Windows  NT  Advanced  Server  Edition. 

In  the  first  half  of  1994,  DEC  wall  offer  a  $3,000 
desktop  PC  that  will  run  NT,  OpenVMS  and 
OSF/1.  That  system  will  be  based  on  a  Periph¬ 
eral  Component  Interconnect  bus,  said  Jon 
Roskill,  marketing  manager  for  Alpha  desktop 
systems. 

Senior  writer  Michael  Fitzgerald  contrib¬ 
uted  to  this  report. 


Integration  takes  center  stage 


New  features  not  a  priority  for  developers 


By  Michael  Vizard 

ATLANTA 


After  years  of  trying  to  overwhelm 
customers  with  features  one-up¬ 
manship,  many  PC  developers  are 
now  rearchitecting  then*  products 
to  offer  tighter  application  inte¬ 
gration. 

The  change  has  come  about  be¬ 
cause  developers  have  finally  real¬ 
ized  that  users  are  ignoring  most 
of  the  features  in  any  given  soft¬ 
ware  package. 

“We’re  about  a  year  into  adopt¬ 
ing  Windows,  and  at  this  stage  of 
the  game  there  are  alot  of  features 
that  are  not  beingused,”  said  Scott 
Brady,  data  resource  manager  at 
Holland  America  Line,  Inc.  in  Se¬ 
attle. 

Different  angles 

Vendor  understanding  of  this  was 
evident  at  Comdex/Spring  ’93  last 
week. 

“hi  the  next  release  of  our  prod¬ 
ucts,  we’re  going  to  revisit  how  the 
applications  integrate  with  one 
another,”  said  Mike  Fritz,  Micro¬ 
soft’s  group  marketing  manager 
for  developer  relations. 

To  that  end,  Microsoft  will  make 
use  of  an  automation  feature  in¬ 
cluded  in  Version  2.0  of  its  OLE  fa¬ 
cility. 

This  feature  provides  develop¬ 
ers  with  a  common  macro  lan¬ 
guage,  which  enables  them  to 
work  against  a  range  of  applica¬ 
tions.  This  means  that  rather  than 
having  a  single  type  of  macro  for 
each  application,  information  sys¬ 


tems  developers  will  be  able  to  cre¬ 
ate  macros  and  intelligent  agents 
that  could  be  applied  to  a  series  of 
users  and  applications. 

“There  will  be  no  walls  between 
applications,”  said  Leslie  Kock,  a 
product  marketing  manager  for 
Microsoft’s  Excel  spreadsheet. 

But  providingOLE  2.0  is  only  the 
“plumbing”  that  wall  allow  devel- 


Inside  an  ‘intelligent’ 
application 


PC  software  vendors  agree  that 
future  applications  will  contain  the 
following  hierarchy  of  ease-of-use 
service: 


Top  layer: 

“Intelligent”  software  —  adjusts 
to  individual  user  habits. 


Middle  layer: 

“Intelligent”  agents  —  task- 
oriented  facilities  that  work 
across  multiple  applications. 


Bottom  layer: 

OLE  automation  —  allows 
common  macros  to  be  applied 
across  multiple  applications. 


Source:  Vendor  and  user  interviews 


opers  to  create  tightly  integrated 
applications,  noted  Frank  Ingari, 
vice  president  of  marketing  at  Lo¬ 
tus.  At  Comdex,  Lotus  showcased 
Version  2.0  of  its  SmartSuite  offer¬ 
ing.  Due  in  July,  SmartSuite  2.0 
adds  more  intelligence  to  the 
translation  process  across  appli¬ 
cations. 

This  means,  for  example,  that 
Freelance  wall  recognize  that  a  us¬ 
er  is  attemptingto  transfer  a  chart 


from  1-2-3  to  Freelance  and  will 
automatically  convert  that  data  in¬ 
to  a  Freelance  format.  Lotus  has 
also  added  support  for  an  Applica¬ 
tion  Field  Exchange  Facility  that 
ties  SmartSuite  applications  into 
Notes. 

In  a  similar  approach,  Borland 
International,  Inc.  is  addinga  Pub¬ 
lish  facility  to  its  Quattro  Pro  2.0 
spreadsheet  to  make  it  easier  for 
users  to  share  data  across  multi¬ 
ple  spreadsheets,  said  Dave  Wat¬ 
kins,  vice  president  of  product 
management  at  Borland. 

Next  in  line 

After  implementing  the  plumbing 
required  to  integrate  applications 
and  developing  agents  that  will 
work  across  applications,  vendors 
said  their  next  goal  is  to  develop 
versions  of  their  software  that  ad¬ 
just  to  the  habits  of  individual  us¬ 
ers. 

“Ultimately,  I’d  like  to  see  soft¬ 
ware  that  can  figure  out  that  I’m 
not  using  50%  of  the  features  and 
not  load  these  features  so  it  will 
run  twice  as  fast,”  said  Will  Reyn¬ 
olds,  Lotus’  director  of  develop¬ 
ment  for  SmartSuite. 

“The  software  is  going  to  be  able 
to  figure  out  what  you  are  going  to 
do  next  and  make  that  process  the 
automatic  default,”  said  Jerry  Mi- 
chalski,  a  contributing  editor  to 
the  “Release  1.0”  newsletter  in 
New  York. 

But  users  should  not  expect  tre¬ 
mendous  advancements  in  the 
near  future.  Most  developers  are 
just  beginning  to  learn  how  to  im¬ 
plement  the  basic  plumbing  that 
will  be  provided  by  OLE  2.0. 


Inversion 
6.0  of 

WordPerfect, 
there  are  10 
Coach 

facilities  that 

walk  users 

through 

theirtaskor 

automatically 

perform 

those 

functions  if 
instructed. 
WordPerfect 
has  made 
another  10 
Coaches 
available  on 
its  bulletin 
board 

service,  and 
it  will 
provide 
users  with 
the  tools  to 
make  their 
own 

Coaches, 

according  to 

product 

manager 

Todd 

Ashman. 


IBM  sets  PS/2  update 


CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  1 

or  other  AT  bus  machines.  Sources 
said  the  company  may  price  the  new 
boxes  as  much  as  30%  less  than  simi¬ 
larly  configured  models  of  the  current 
PS/2  line. 

Varied  reaction 

User  reaction  was  mixed.  Strong  MCA 
shops  were  pleased  with  the  news. 
Bruce  I.  Linker,  assistant  vice  presi¬ 
dent  of  information  systems  at  Dean 
Witter  Reynolds,  said,  “This  is  what  I 
was  waiting  for  [from  IBM],  The  an¬ 
nouncement  looks  very  interesting,  es¬ 
pecially  if  it’s  a  price  drop  and  I  can  get 
built-in  Token  Ring.” 

But  Jockey  International,  Inc.  in  Ke¬ 
nosha,  Wis.,  has  left  MCA  behind  in  fa¬ 
vor  of  the  ValuePoint  line,  according  to 
PC  coordinator  Jacqueline  Bynsdorp. 
She  said  she  is  tired  of  having  to  pay 
$1,000  to  replace  a  single  60M-byte 
hard  drive  on  an  MCA  machine. 


Sources  said  IBM  has  pushed  back 
plans  to  introduce  its  Ambra  line  of 
PCs  in  the  U.S.  to  the  week  of  June  28. 
Ambra  is  now  sold  in  Europe  and  Can¬ 
ada. 

This  product  line,  which  is  not  an 
IBM-brand  product  but  is  built  by  Indi¬ 
vidual  Computer  Products  Interna¬ 
tional  Ltd.,  an  IBM  subsidiary  in  Singa¬ 
pore,  wall,  like  the  PS/2  line,  top  out 
with  the  Blue  Lightning  chip,  accord¬ 
ing  to  sources.  This  creates  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  increased  brand  confusion. 

“They’re  absolutely  shotgunning 
the  market  in  hopes  of  catching  new 
users,”  Dunkle  said.  “We  expect  that 
the  new  PS/2s  will  bring  a  sigh  of  relief 
to  the  market,  but  Ambra  will  really 
muddy  the  waters.” 

IBM  refused  to  comment  on  specific 
products. 

Meanwhile,  the  sub-4-pound  Think¬ 
Pad  500  is  slightly  smaller  than  a  note¬ 


book  with  a  7.5-in.  screen.  It  has  an  ex¬ 
ternal  floppy  drive,  uses  the  486SLC2 
(a  25/50-MHz  IBM  derivative  of  Intel 
Corp.’s  I486SL  microprocessor)  and  is 
expected  to  have  up  to  3  hours  of  bat¬ 
tery  life. 

The  5.8-pound  ThinkPad  350  will  run 
on  an  Intel  35-MHz  486SL.  The  mono¬ 
chrome  notebook  will  have  a  battery 
with  a  built-in  charger  that  can  be 
plugged  into  electrical  sockets.  The 
battery  will  give  between  three  and 
four  hours  of  life. 

Flip-flop  feature 

The  Model  350  was  designed  to  let  us¬ 
ers  swap  the  floppy  back  and  forth 
with  an  unannounced  wireless  Cellu¬ 
lar  Digital  Packet  Data  communica¬ 
tions  module,  sources  said. 

Both  new  ThinkPads  will  use 
PCMCIA  slots,  and  the  Model  500  will 
have  an  external  floppy  drive.  IBM  is 
expected  to  price  the  subnotebook  500 
at  $2,500  and  the  350  below  $2,000. 

The  PS/Energy  Workstation  will  be 
the  first  inafamilyof  “green”  PCs,  with 
more  to  come  in  the  fall. 


8  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


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News:  Comdex/Spring  ’93 


Microsoft  charts  client/server  course 


Bv  Michael  Vizard 

REDMOND,  WASH  . 


While  Microsoft  Corp.  hosted  a  coming- 
out  bash  for  Windows  NT  at  Windows 
World  in  Atlanta  last  week,  company  en¬ 
gineers  here  were  working  on  the  next 
generation  of  Microsoft’s  client/server 
technology. 


Though  Windows  NT  will  initially  give 
Microsoft  a  high-end  server  for  local- 
area  networks  [CW,  May  24],  Microsoft 
executives  said  the  next  client/server 
move  calls  for  a  revamping  of  the  Win¬ 
dows  operating  system  —  to  make  it  eas¬ 
ier  to  find  files  and  resources  —  and  the 
building  of  a  distributed  file  system 
(DFS)  that  Microsoft  is  developing  to  link 


all  Windows  NT  systems  on  the  network. 

The  DFS  will  allow  users  to  seamlessly 
access  any  resource  that  resides  on  Win¬ 
dows  NT  systems  across  the  network 
without  knowing  what  drive  a  file  is  lo¬ 
cated  on,  said  Doug  Henrich,  Microsoft 
group  manager  for  developer  relations. 
This  universal  system  view  capability  is 
being  created  as  part  of  Microsoft’s  ob¬ 


ject-oriented  operating  system  project, 
called  Cairo,  which  is  due  in  1995. 

“Having  a  distributed  file  system  is  a 
must  for  creating  a  virtual  mainframe  in 
a  client/server  environment,”  said  John 
Donovan,  a  director  at  WorkGroup  Tech¬ 
nologies,  Inc.  in  Hampton,  N.H. 

But  it  is  unclear  whether  users  will 
wait  for  Windows  NT  to  mature  before 
fully  embracing  client/server,  Donovan 
noted.  “The  Unixvendors  are  way  ahead 
of  NT  in  terms  of  providing  this  capabili¬ 
ty.  Everything  about  NT  screams  a  need 
for  a  distributed  file  system.” 

NT  provides  a  domain  service  capabil¬ 
ity  that  gives  users  access  to  a  specific 
set  of  servers.  However,  it  lacks  a  global 
directory  service  similar  to  the  services 
provided  by  Novell,  Inc.’s  NetWare  4.0  or 
Banyan  System,  Inc.’s  Vines  software. 

To  make  up  for  this,  Microsoft  said  it 
plans  to  build  a  DFS  that  will  include  the 
functionality  of  a  global  directory  service 
and  will  provide  the  distributed  system 
capabilities  typically  associated  with 
Unix  and  Digital  Equipment  Corp.’s 
OpenVMS  systems. 

Because  the  current  version  of  Win¬ 
dows  NT  lacks  robust  distributed  system 
capabilities,  most  users  said  they  see  it 
as  a  LAN  solution. 

“Right  now,  NT  is  laid  out  as  a  direct 
competitor  to  NetWare.  The  manage¬ 
ment  tools  for  building  a  distributed  sys¬ 
tem  like  Unix  are  coming  in  a  future  re¬ 
lease,”  said  Richard  Lansing,  a  vice 
president  at  Chemical  Banking  Corp.  in 
New  York. 

As  a  result,  most  users  will  probably 
restrict  Windows  NT  to  pilot  projects 
that  call  for  a  server  on  a  local  work¬ 
group.  “We  won’t  put  NT  out  as  a  produc¬ 
tion  system  until  we’re  sure  it’s  secure. 
We’re  risk-averse  when  it  comes  to  new 
operating  systems,”  Lansing  said. 

Icing  on  the  cake 

The  DFS  capability  will  eventually  be 
added  as  another  service  to  be  layered 
on  top  of  modularly  architected  Windows 
NT.  The  DFS  will  be  part  of  Microsoft’s 
Windows  Open  Service  Architecture, 
which  Henrich  said  will  allow  Microsoft 
to  add  new  system  services  to  Windows 
NT  over  time. 

Microsoft  is  also  working  on  a  revamp 
of  its  Windows  operating  platform  under 
the  code  name  Chicago.  The  revamp  is 
expected  to  go  into  beta  testingthis  sum¬ 
mer  and  will  require  Microsoft  to  reuse 
the  Windows  interface  for  NT  some  time 
in  1994  as  well,  said  Jesse  Berst,  editor 
of  the  “Windows  Watcher”  newsletter. 

Windows  4.0,  which  is  expected  next 
year,  will  include  built-in  support  for  net¬ 
work  protocols,  according  to  Rogers 
Weed,  Windows  product  manager.  It  will 
also  include  an  integrated  file  and  pro¬ 
gram  manager,  support  for  preemptive 
multitasking,  a  mail  client  capable  of 
supporting  voice  and  fax,  a  common  in¬ 
box,  a  common  directory  tree  and  folders 
that  will  resemble  the  folders  currently 
used  in  the  Apple  Computer,  Inc.  Macin¬ 
tosh  operating  system,  Berst  said. 

With  the  arrival  of  built-in  network 
support  in  Windows  4.0,  Microsoft  essen¬ 
tially  will  have  merged  its  Windows  and 
Windows  for  Workgroups  offerings. 


In  Taking  Our  Software  To 
The  Next  SterWe  Found  Ourselves 
Going  Considerably  Further. 


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00  are  registered  trademarks  of  IBM  Cot 


10  COMPUTERWORLD  MAY  31,  1993 


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Micro  Focus  is  a  registered  trademark  and  "A  Bctier  Way  ol  Programming'  is  a  trademark  of  Micro  Focus,  Inc.  All  other  trademarks  are  property  of  their  respective  compann 

GSA  Contract  Number  GS00K90AGS5251-PS02. 


/-i  m  os 


News:  Comdex/Spring  ’93 


OS  duel  shifts 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  1 

aged  as  a  system,  and  we  have  decades 
of  experience  making  heterogeneous 
systems  talk  to  each  other,”  Cannavino 
said. 

Despite  formal  introductions  last 
week,  neither  Microsoft’s  NT  nor  IBM’s 
OS/2  2.1  has  shipped 
yet.  Even  so,  users  are 
already  making  plans 
for  the  updated  oper¬ 
ating  systems.  It  ap¬ 
pears  those  plans  may 
reverse  the  traditional 
roles  of  the  competing 
operating  systems: 

Windows  on  the  client 
and  OS/2  on  the  server. 

Many  Windows  3.1 
users  are  plotting  a 
server  course  for  Win¬ 
dows  NT,  based  both 
on  its  scalability  to 
multiprocessor  sys¬ 
tems  and  its  multi¬ 
tasking  and  multi¬ 
threading  abilities. 

Meanwhile,  a  speed- 
enhanced  and  more  reliable  OS/2  2.1  is 
primed  for  a  move  to  the  client. 

Indeed,  IBM  has  stated  its  intention  to 
put  the  necessary  resources  —  market¬ 
ing,  support  and  otherwise  —  behind 
OS/2  2.1  to  make  it  a  success,  said  Brent 


Williams,  program  director  for  PC  soft¬ 
ware  at  International  Data  Corp.  in 
Mountain  View,  Calif. 

Other  factors  could  also  help  OS/2  2.1, 
Williams  said.  These  include  a  recent 
move  by  hardware  vendors  to  custom- 
configure  systems  rather  than  prebun¬ 
dle  software  and  the  slips  in  Windows 
NT’s  schedule.  It  was  originally  slated  to 
ship  before  the  end  of  1992.  Then  the  date 
shifted  to  first-quarter/spring  1993  and 
then  summer.  Micro¬ 
soft’s  revised  sched¬ 
ule  could  place  the  re¬ 
lease  in  late  August. 
“Now  that  NT’s  late, 
people  with  critical 
needs  are  going  to  go 
with  OS/2,”  he  said. 

Robert  Holmes, 
computer  technology 
research  analyst  at 
Southern  California 
Gas  Co.  in  Los  Ange¬ 
les,  is  one  user  who 
has  already  com- 
mited  to  OS/2.  He  said 
|  that  while  OS/2  2.0  is 
|  now  used  primarily 
by  users  needing  to 
run  OS/2-specific 
applications,  Version 
2.1  appears  to  be  solid  enough  for  him  to 
offer  it  as  a  general  desktop  option  for 
OS/2,  Windows  3.1  and  DOS  users. 

There  were  “all  kinds  of  things  that 
were  potential  support  hits  [in  OS/2  2.0],” 
Holmes  said,  noting  that  most  of  these 


problems  are  gone  now.  He  said 
driver  support  has  improved,  par¬ 
ticularly  for  video,  and  that  glitch¬ 
es  that  could  have  become  prob¬ 
lems,  such  as  the  ever-expanding 
initialization  files  in  the  Work- 
Place  Shell,  have  been  fixed. 

OS/2  2.1’s  Windows  3.1  support 
will  win  it  some  other  converts.  “It 
certainly  does  enable  us  to  do 
quite  a  bit  that  we  couldn’t  do  with 
2.0,”  said  Karl  Hamme,  lead  pro¬ 
grammer  analyst  at  Geico  Insur¬ 
ance  in  Washington,  D.C.  In  partic¬ 
ular,  Hamme  said,  developers  at 
Geico  no  longer  have  to  reboot  to  DOS 
and  Windows  3.1  to  use  several  impor¬ 
tant  Windows-based  development  tools. 

While  OS/2  2.1  may  help  IBM  capture 
some  desktops,  Windows  NT  seems  tar¬ 
geted  in  some  accounts  primarily  for 
servers.  James  Richards,  PC  systems  ad¬ 
ministrator  at  Psicor,  Inc.  in  San  Diego, 
said  his  company  wants  to  move  some 
applications  to  Windows  NT  to  take  ad¬ 
vantage  of  the  performance  of  multipro¬ 
cessor  systems. 

And  William  Cornfield,  president  of 
the  Windows  Support  Group  consultancy 
in  New  York,  said  he  believes  one  group 
of  users  will  certainly  move  to  Windows 
NT  soon  —  those  using  SQL  Server  on 
OS/2.  “I  would  be  shocked  if  by  the  end  of 
the  year  you  found  10%  of  SQL  Server  us¬ 
ers  still  on  OS/2,”  he  said. 

SQL  Server  for  Windows  NT  is  more 
stable  than  the  OS/2  product,  even  as 
beta-test  software,  Cornfield  said. 


SQL  Server  is  not  the  only  draw  for  NT, 
however.  A  user  at  a  large  West  Coast 
aerospace  firm  said  he  is  looking  for¬ 
ward  to  Windows  NT’s  preemptive  multi¬ 
tasking  to  make  his  process  control  ap¬ 
plication  more  powerful  and  responsive. 
One  part  of  the  system  controls  alarms 
that  warn  of  dangerous  situations  in  a 
chemical  plant,  so  any  improvement  in 
performance  is  important.  His  current 
application  runs  on  Windows  3.1. 

“NT  is  definitely  where  we  are  goingto 
head  to,”  the  user  said.  “That’s  where  the 
future  is.” 

Performance  is  also  crucial  to  Psicor, 
which  supplies  doctors  and  equipment 
for  80 ,000  medical  cases  per  year  to  some 
600  hospitals  around  North  America  — 
with  guaranteed  response  times  of  five 
minutes. 

“We’re  just  crying  for  resources,” 
Richards  said.  “We’d  convert  to  32-bit 
systems  for  speed  alone.” 


Microsoft’s  Bill  Gates  shared  NT  be¬ 
ta-test  success  stories 


OS/2  bugs  force  firm  to  backtrack 


By  Rosemary  Cafasso 

CONYERS, GA. 


Fed  up  with  mysterious  system  glitches  on  its 
IBM  OS/2  2.0  servers,  Lithonia  Lighting  Corp. 
plans  to  go  back  to  Release  1.3  of  the  operating 
system,  according  to  Jeff  Kernan,  vice  presi¬ 
dent  of  information  systems. 

“From  a  business  perspective,  I  have  burned 
so  much  time,  it  is  time  to  drop  back  and  punt,” 
he  said. 

Since  January,  Lithonia  has  ex¬ 
perienced  system  “hang-ups”  that 
even  IBM  has  had  trouble  diagnos¬ 
ing,  Kernan  said.  The  problems  oc¬ 
cur  on  servers  running  OS/2  2.0, 

IBM’s  LAN  Server  3.0  and  multiple 
applications,  including  software 
designed  in-house. 

Dave  Sawyer,  an  IBM  marketing 
representative  who  handles  the  Li¬ 
thonia  account,  said  IBM  is  con¬ 
tinuing  to  work  with  the  lighting 
company,  which  he  said  has  a  complex  and 
somewhat  unique  set  of  software. 

“We  have  had  some  problems  that  we  have 
not  been  able  to  figure  out  exactly  what  they 
are,”  Sawyer  said. 

Two  other  OS/2  users  contacted  last  week 
said  they  had  not  experienced  serious  prob¬ 
lems  with  LAN  Server  3.0  in  tests.  However,  one 
said  he  frequently  finds  it  difficult  to  get  tech¬ 
nical  answers  and  bug  fixes  from  IBM  when  it 
comes  to  LAN  Server  3.0. 

The  IS  department  at  Lithonia  provides  ser¬ 
vice  to  nearly  100  independent  agents  as  well 


as  to  its  own  internal  users. 

Kernan  said  he  opted  to  move  back  to  Version 
1.3  when  the  system  problems  reached  a  point 
where  agents  were  spending  too  much  time 
with  computer  issues  and  not  enough  with  the 
business  of  selling  lighting  equipment. 

Kernan  and  Tom  Martin,  director  of  comput¬ 
er  services  at  Lithonia,  said  IBM  has  been  re¬ 
sponsive  and  gave  them  access  to  its  OS/2  de¬ 
velopers  as  they  migrated  to  OS/2  last  year.  But 
as  problems  continued  and  as  IBM  could  not 
solve  the  server  hang-up  issue,  Li¬ 
thonia  grew  frustrated  with  IBM’s 
inability  to  provide  it  with  solu¬ 
tions. 

Recently,  Kernan  said  IBM  sug¬ 
gested  an  upgrade  to  OS/2  2.1, 
which  was  officially  unveiled  in 
New  York  two  weeks  ago.  Kernan 
said  his  staff  has  tested  Version  2.1 
and  found  no  problems  with  it,  but 
he  is  not  confident  that  it  would 
stabilize  his  environment. 

Version  “2.1  may  be  the  answer  and  we  will 
try  it,”  Kernan  said.  “But  I  am  not  going  into  a 
customer  site  and  subject  them  to  more  trouble 
potentially.  The  track  record  is  not  good.” 

Lithonia  plans  to  swap  out  Version  2.0  at  32 
sites  and  reinstall  1.3.  Several  sites  that  were 
migrating  to  OS/2  for  the  first  time  will  now  get 
1 .3  instead  of  2.0  as  planned. 

Internally,  Lithonia  runs  about  100  OS/2 
servers,  and  only  10  are  Version  2.0.  Martin  said 
these  servers,  which  also  run  LAN  Server  3.0, 
do  not  seem  to  have  the  problems  that  have 
plagued  the  field  systems. 


IBM  executives 
said  IBM  will 
train  an 
additional  500 
staff  members 
on  LAN  system 
and  client/ 
server  support 
issues. 


A  matter  of  timing 


A  new  release  of  the  Windows 
NT  “March  beta”  sent  in  April 
to  a  small  number  of  beta-test 
users  is  again  raising  issues 
about  Microsoft’s  relationship 
with  Novell,  Inc. 

The  late- April  release,  which 
was  sent  to  Windows  NT  Ad¬ 
vanced  Server  beta-test  users, 
contained  changes  to  the  Win¬ 
dows  NT  Transport  Device  In¬ 
terface  (TDI)  that  network  re¬ 
questers  use  to  talk  to  the 
operating  system. 

Microsoft  said  it  made  the 
changes  to  improve  Windows 
NT  performance,  but  they  had  a 
side  effect  of  not  workingwith 
Novell’s  beta-test  version  of  its 
NetWare  requester  for  Win¬ 
dows  NT. 

Louis  Kahn,  network  admin¬ 
istrator  at  the  Centers  for  Dis¬ 
ease  Control  and  Prevention  in 
Atlanta,  was  one  user  who  re¬ 
ceived  the  March  beta-test  ver¬ 
sion  that  was  sent  in  April. 

“But  I  can’t  install  [it],  I  don’t 
have  an  NT  redirector  from  No¬ 
vell,  and  I  blame  that  on  the  fact 
that  Novell  didn’t  get  the  code 
before  I  got  it,”  Kahn  said. 

Other  beta-test  users  report¬ 
ed  the  same  problem,  and  Mi¬ 


crosoft  acknowledged  that  the 
TDI had  been  changed  and  that 
Novell  would  have  to  provide  a 
second  redirector  for  the  new 
beta-test  version. 

Microsoft  Windows  NT  prod¬ 
uct  manager  David  Thacher 
said  the  problem  was  due  to  an 
“oversight”  on  Microsoft’s  part. 
He  said  the  TDI  would  not  be 
changed  again. 

“There’s  no  question  that  our 
top  priority  is  making  sure  that 
the  NetWare  requester  works 
great,”  he  said. 

Thacher  added  that  the  pri¬ 
mary  reason  for  releasing  the 
beta-test  version  was  to  let  cus¬ 
tomers  test  the  Apple  Comput¬ 
er,  Inc.  Macintosh  connectivity 
for  Advanced  Server  that  had 
just  been  added. 

Novell  sources  said  they  are 
not  particularly  pleased  with 
the  situation  because  they  will 
now  be  forced  to  support  two 
versions  of  their  requester 
while  the  beta  test  is  going  on. 
The  requesters  will  converge 
whenever  Windows  NT  ships.  A 
new  version  of  the  requester 
should  be  available  within  a  few 
days,  the  sources  said. 

—  Christopher  Lindquist 


12  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Rob  Nelson 


The  analysts  have 
graphed  the  future 
of  Client/Server 

computing. 


Which  Database  Vendors  Will  Be  Key  To  Your  Move  To  Client/Server? 
50%  • 


Source: 

Forrester 
Research,  Inc. 

The  Software 
Strategy  Report 
Volume  3, 
Number  9 
(December;  1992] 

Balance  of 
respondents 
were  undecided. 


i  i  r 

Sybase  Oracle  IBM  Informix  Ingres  Other 


And  they  have  also  spoken. 

In  recent  issues  of  their  ongoing  reports,  four  of  the 
most  respected  computer  industry  analysts  have  taken  an 
unbiased  look  at  Sybase,  and  its  vision  of  enterprise-wide 
client/server  computing. 

They  were  impressed. 


1  Sybase 


For  copies  of  the  full  reports  from 
Forrester  Research,  Gartner  Group, 
Meta  Group  and  New  Science 
Associates,  please  call  1-800"8“SYBASE. 


©Sybase,  Inc.  1993.  All  rights  reserved.  SYBASE  and  the  Sybase  logo  are  registered  trademarks  of  Sybase,  Inc.  Forrester  Research  is  a  trademark  of  Forrester  Research,  Inc. 


News:  Comdex/Spring ’93 


Windows  Wrorld  Open  1993 


Microsoft  Corp.  Chairman  and  Chief  Executive  Officer  Bill  Gates  (center),  pictured  surrounded  by  winners  of 
the  Windows  World  Open  1993 Awards  (from  left  to  right):  William  Hamilton,  Weston  Information 
Network;  Ken  Green ,  J.  Walter  Thompson;  Michael  Abele,  representing  United  American  Healthcare 
Corp.  ;  Ken  Forster,  Lockheed  Miss  iles  a  nd  Space  Co.;  Tim  Buyers,  Shell  Western  E&  P,  Inc.;  Tim 
Gauslin,  US  Geological  Survey;  Art  Hill,  First  National  Bank  of  Chicago;  and  Thomas  Conophy,  Galileo 
International 


Pen  initiatives  to  ignite  market 


CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  1 

Separately,  sources  said  AT&T 
is  considering  a  plan  to  start  a 
high-profile  evangelical  push  that 
will  seed  EO,  Inc.’s  pen-based  Per¬ 
sonal  Communicators  into  key 
business  accounts. 

The  Jot  spec,  meanwhile,  has 
the  backing  of  22  companies, 
including  Apple  Computer,  Inc.,  Go 
Corp.  and  General  Magic,  Inc. 

Donald  A.  Zagar,  president  of 
Dazzling  Pen,  a  pen  computing  val¬ 
ue-added  reseller  in  Prospect, 
Conn.,  said  Jot  “will  fill  in  some 
holes  in  pen-based  communica¬ 
tions  by  letting  users  jot  notes 
down  and  send  them  without  using 
frustrating  translation  software.” 
He  said  the  difficulty  in  sending 
electronic  ink,  as  pen  input  is 
known,  had  prevented  several  po¬ 
tential  clients  in  the  grocery  indus¬ 
try  from  implementing  systems 
that  use  pen  input. 

Wayne  Warwick,  director  of  sys¬ 
tems  development  for  the  loss  con¬ 
trol  department  at  ITT  Hartford 
Insurance  Group  in  Hartford, 
Conn.,  said  the  standard  will  give 
him  flexibility  in  choosing  pen 
platforms.  The  insurance  compa¬ 
ny  is  pilotingpen-computingappli- 
cations  using  Grid  Systems 
Corp.'s  Convertible  pen-and-key- 
board  notebooks  and  Microsoft’s 
Windows  for  Pen  Computing. 

The  first  major  application  to 
use  the  Jot  ink  standard  may  be 
electronic  mail.  Pradeep  Singh, 
group  manager  of  mobile  sendees 


at  Microsoft,  said  Microsoft’s  Mail 
will  support  the  ink  standard 
“roughly  within  a  year.”  Microsoft 
also  plans  to  support  ink  in  the 
next  major  release  of  Windows. 

Lotus  was  not  as  forthcoming. 
Pito  Salas,  manager  of  future 
products,  said  Lotus  supports  the 
Jot  standard  but  has  no  immediate 
plans  to  add  support  for  the  ink 
data  type  to  its  Cc:Mail  software. 

Down  but  not  out 

Meanwhile,  AT&T,  which  hoped  its 
Hobbit  microprocessor  and  its  re¬ 
lationships  with  EO  and  Go  would 
enable  it  to  dominate  the  pen  mar¬ 
ket,  has  been  disappointed  by  the 
market’s  lack  of  enthusiasm  for 
the  product.  Still,  AT&T  has  not 
given  up. 

Sources  close  to  Go  and  AT&T 
said  Go  approached  AT&T  two 
weeks  ago  with  an  idea  to  give  EO 
communicators  to  as  many  as  25 
high-profile  individuals. 

While  the  plan  would  focus  on 
proving  the  genuine  business 
functionality  of  these  devices,  it 

Mightier  than  the  sword 

While  Jot  could  provide  the  industry  with 
a  basic  building  block,  hardware  makers 
continue  to  try  different  approaches: 

•  Tandy  Corp.  and  Casio,  Inc.  will  release 
their  jointly  developed  personal  digital 
assistants,  the  Zoomer and  the  XL-7000, 
Thursday  at  the  Consumer  Electronics 
Show  in  Chicago. 

•  Zenith  Data  Systems  will  come  to 


would  also  include  celebrities  to 
address  the  potential  consumer 
market.  One  such  user  might  be 
the  San  Francisco  49ers,  where 
the  EO  could  replace  the  headsets 
that  currently  handle  communcia- 
tions  between  coach  George  Sei¬ 
fert  and  his  staff  in  the  booth  away 
from  the  field,  a  source  said. 

Behind  this  idea  is  the  failure  of 
the  market  to  understand  what  the 
EO  personal  communicator  does, 
the  sources  said. 

“When  people  see  these  ma¬ 
chines,  they  get  very  excited,  but 
nothing’s  out  there  right  now,  and 
no  one’s  using  them,”  said  one 
source  at  Go. 

Both  AT&T  and  Go  refused  to 
comment,  but  sources  said  AT&T 
has  jumped  on  the  idea. 

Analysts  said  the  seeding  idea 
seemed  to  make  sense.  “They  have 
to  do  it  because  just  putting  these 
things  into  AT&T  phone  stores  and 
expecting  people  to  buy  them  isn’t 
going  to  do  it,”  said  William  Lem- 
pesis,  editor  of  “PenVision  News,” 
a  newsletter  based  in  Pleasanton, 
Calif.  “To  push  it  as  a  horizontal 
[device]  will  take  time  and  some¬ 
thinglike  this  seeding  program.” 

market  June  8  with  a  pen  option  for  its 
notebooks,  sources  said. 

•  On  June  15,  Grid  Systems  Corp.  is 
expected  to  make  several 
announcements,  including  immediate 
delivery  of  a  486SL-based  version  of  its 
Convertible  and  a  486SL-based  version 
of  its  PalmPad,  to  ship  in  the  fall. 

•  Apple’s  Newton  is  expected  to  come  to 
market  June  29. 


Users  wary  about 
launching  apps  for 
Windows  E-mail 

By  Lynda  Radosevich 

ATLANTA 


The  proliferation  of  Microsoft  Corp.  Windows-based  elec¬ 
tronic  mail  has  vendors  positioning  the  technology  as  the 
stepping-stone  to  advanced  applications  such  as  work  flow. 

Target  users  at  last  week’s  Comdex/Spring  ’93  have  a  dif¬ 
ferent  idea:  While  Windows  is  their  platform  of  choice,  they 
are  worried  that  implementing  Windows-based  E-mail  and 
mail-enabled  applications  enterprisewide  remains  a  risky 
technical— and  cultural — proposition. 

“I’m  concerned  about  Windows’  stability,”  said  Wade 
Wood,  information  specialist  at  United  Way  in  St.  Paul,  Minn. 
The  organization  is  looking  at  the  major  Windows  mail 
packages  to  replace  host-based  mail  and  is  exploring  work 
flow  and  forms  rout¬ 
ing.  However,  “now 
the  AS/400  is  stable, 
and  we  know  mes¬ 
sages  will  make  it 
through  the  T1  gate¬ 
ways  to  our  Minne¬ 
apolis  office,”  he 
said. 

Cultural  issues 
overshadow  techni¬ 
cal  ones  for  Robert 
Fluegel,  director  of 
research  and  devel¬ 
opment  at  Advo,  Inc., 
a  direct-mail  market¬ 
ing  firm  in  Windsor, 

Conn.  Despite  Win¬ 
dows’  vaunted  easy- 
to-use  graphical  in¬ 
terface,  some  of  his 
company’s  employ¬ 
ees  would  rather  leave  the  computing  to  others.  “How  do 
you  teach  an  executive  to  route  his  own  memo  when  he’s 
used  to  just  givingit  to  his  secretary?”  Fluegel  asked. 

Forewarned  is  forearmed 

At  a  session  on  E-mail-enabled  applications,  speakers 
warned  corporate  developers  of  the  many  challenges  they 
face  in  implementing  critical  mail  and  mail-enabled  appli¬ 
cations.  For  example,  they  will  have  to  choose  from  amongst 
a  half-dozen  application  programming  interfaces  if  they 
want  to  develop  customized  applications. 

Other  issues  include  lack  of  security,  text  integrity  and 
guaranteed  delivery.  For  example,  today’s  mail  and  mail-en¬ 
abled  applications  have  no  feature  that  would  keep  prank¬ 
sters  from  sneaking  into  co-workers’  offices  and  tampering 
with  message-based  applications  using  their  co-workers’ 
log-ons.  One  fix  would  be  a  screen  saver  that  requires  a 
password  to  reactivate  a  computer  after  a  period  of  inac¬ 
tivity. 

Another  problem,  retracting  misdirected  messages  and 
documents  such  as  confidential  product  plans,  is  addressed 
by  WordPerfect  Corp.’s  Office  4.0  E-mail  package.  WordPer¬ 
fect  said  it  offers  the  only  E-mail  software  that  lets  users 
retract  messages  and  routed  documents  that  have  not  been 
opened  by  the  recipients. 

Despite  the  challenges,  Comdex  attendee  Judy  Fuetter, 
programmer/application  developer  at  the  St.  Johns  River 
Water  Management  District  in  Palatka,  Fla.,  said  she  is  look¬ 
ing  forward  to  developing  E-mail  applications  once  the  or¬ 
ganization  completes  its  transition  from  a  host  system  to  a 
Transmission  Control  Protocol/Internet  Protocol  and  No¬ 
vell,  Inc.  NetWare  network  with  Windows-based  PCs  for  500 
people. 


Mail  methods 


Both  standard  E-mail  and  E-mail- 
enabled  applications  rely  on  the 
same  architecture,  especially  the 
API.  This  makes  the  choice  of  API 
vital  to  effective  implementation. 


Mail 

clients 


Mail-enabled 

application 


API 


Messaging 


Post  office 


■>  Directory 


Messaging  backbone 


Source:  Lotus  Development  Corp./Microsoft  Corp. 


14  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


News:  Comdex/Spring ’93 


Reporter’s 

Notebook 


IBM’s  Jim  Cannavino  spoofed  just  about 
everyone  in  his  keynote  address,  which 
was  prefaced  with  a  Sa  t  urday  Night 
Live  takeoff  called  “Industry  Update” 
that  included  the  IBM  logo  done  up  to 
look  like  an  Oreo  cookie  and  hysterical 
shots  of  Philippe  Kahn  as  Cap’n  Crunch 
and  Bill  Gates  in  a  baby  outfit .  A  commen¬ 
tator  in  the  video  bemoaned  IBM’s  move 
away  from  white  shirts,  noting  that, 
“When  they  wore  white  shirts,  they  made 
money.”  Also  included  was  a  clip  from  a 
recent  Joan  Rivers  show  that  highlighted 
PCs  and  featured  stacks  of  OS/2.  Rivers 
was  in  full  ditz  mode,  saying,  “I  don’t  do 
computers  because  I  found  out  Windows 
was  involved,  and  I  don’t  do  windows.” 

It  surely  was  an  experienced  user  of  1.0 
software  who  amused  the  400  Comdex  at¬ 
tendees  crammed  into  an  overflow  room 
for  a  televised  view  of  the  Windows  NT 
introduction.  When  the  videotaped  por¬ 
tion  of  Microsoft  Chairman  Bill  Gates’  in¬ 
fomercial  opened  without  sound,  a  voice 
from  the  audience  assured,  “That  will  be 
fixed  in  the  next  release.” 

In  the  past,  the  types  of  products  sold 
storefront-style  on  show  floors  tended  to 
be  computer  games  and  luggage  carri¬ 
ers,  not  operating  systems.  But  IBM  de¬ 
livered  OS/2  2.1  to  anyone  with  the  cash 
or  plastic,  claiming  sales  of  500  copies  on 
the  first  day  of  the  show.  Meanwhile, 
printer  vendors  such  as  Hewlett-Pack¬ 
ard  found  that  you  don’t  have  to  truck 
boxes  of  glossy  product  literature  to  a 
show.  They  output  the  literature  right  on 
the  show  floor  using  their  own  products. 

IBM  held  a  couple  more  “technology” 
demonstrations  in  its  OS/2  booth  this 
time  around.  These  included  the  IBM 
Microkernel  or  “Workplace  Operating 
System”  running  DOS,  Unix,  OS/2  and 
Windows  personalities — but  only  in  full¬ 
screen  mode.  Several  of  the  personal¬ 
ities  are  due  to  go  into  beta  testing  later 
this  year.  IBM  also  showed  aversion  of 
OS/2  2. 1  running  on  an  AST  Research 
multiprocessor  “Manhattan”  machine.  A 
group  of  IBM  developers  worked  with 
Intel  to  produce  the  version,  which 
should  go  into  beta  testing  this  summer. 

More  than  1,100  show  attendees  faxed 
opinions  to  their  congressmen  using 


DO  YOU  SELL 
SOLUTIONS? 

Advertise  your  hardware  and 
software  solutions  in 
Computerworld’s  weekly 
Solutions  Directory.  Rates  start 
at  just  $499  for  26  weeks. 

800-343-6474 

x744 


FutureSoft  Engineering’s  fax  software 
and  congressional  phone  book  supple¬ 
ment  at  the  company’s  booth.  FutureSoft 
said  attendees’  favorite  topics  were  the 
budget  plan  (most  didn’t  like  it)  and  gays 
in  the  military. 

IBM  took  the  “best  dig’  award  by  outfit- 
tingits  employees  with  shirts  reading 
NT:  Nice  Try.  The  slogan  on  the  back  of 
the  shirts  read:  “OS/2,  not  just  up  and 
coming,  up  and  running.” 


A  Lotus  representative  could  not  ex¬ 
plain  the  differences  between  that 
company’s  1-2-3  for  Windows  spread¬ 
sheet  and  its  Improv  for  Windows 
spreadsheet,  according  to  an  attendee 
who  asked  to  have  the  differences 
explained.  “I  use  them  both  myself;  they 
are  just  different,”  the  frustrated  rep  re¬ 
portedly  said. 

Those  who  have  worn  out  shoes  and 
nerves  dealingwith  the  logistics  of 


gettingaround  Comdex  and  other  major 
trade  shows  over  the  years  may  have  no¬ 
ticed  the  unusually  high  number  of  at¬ 
tendees  who  were  physically  handi¬ 
capped  or  visually  impaired.  It  was 
refreshing  to  see  them  gain  access  to 
the  technology:  However,  the  medals  of 
honor  go  to  the  seeing-eye  dogs  that  led 
their  owners  through  the  crush  of 
people,  some  of  whom  thought  nothingof 
brushing  guide  dog  and  owner  out  of 
the  way. 


IS  YOUR  MAINFRAME  REALLY 
IMPROVING  COMMUNICATIONS? 


A  computer  system  should 
help  support  your  business 
strategy  with  virtually  un¬ 
limited  communications 
capabilities.  It  should  unify 
all  your  dissimilar  tech  nologies 
for  increased  productivity  and 
convenience.  The  Encore 
In  finity  90  is  this  system. 

Its  open  architecture  and 
standards- based  connectivity 
support  all  the  systems  and 
networks  you  will  ever  use. 

And  since  everyone  is  dealing 
with  change,  we’ve  made  all  of 
the  Infinity  90  s  processing 
capabilities  and  I/O 
throughput  individually 
sea  lable.  That  means  every 
communication  service  in  your 
enterprise  is  configured  for 
maximum  performance  at  all 
times.  With  the  Infinity  90, 
you  shape  your  enterprise  to 
the  exact  communication 
demands  of  your  business. 
Total  connectivity,  unlimited 
scala  hility,  uninterrupted 
operation  and  unprecedented 
efficiency  place  the  Encore 
In  finity  90  among  the  most 
valuable  business  assets  of 
the  ’90s. 

Think 
beyond 
conventional 
communications. 

Think 
Infinity  90. 


ENCORE 


Delivering  Enterprise  Solutions 

Encore  Computer  Corporation 
6001  W.  Sunrise  Blvtl. 

Ft.  Lauderdale,  Florida  33313-4499 
(800)  933-6267  U.S.  and  Canada 
(305)  587-2900  Worldwide 


Infinity  DO  is  a  tnuk'inarL-  at  Entxwv  Computer  C« wpoeation. 


Computerworld  May  31, 1993  15 


News 


IBM  recalls  notebook  model 

IBM  PC  Co.  is  recalling  all  150,000  Personal  System/2 
Model  L40SX  notebooks  it  has  sold  since  March  1991. 
A  spokeswoman  said  IBM  has  discovered  that  15  units 
sold  in  Europe  have  had  problems  with  bad  battery 
circuits  that  generate  too  much  heat.  Although  this 
represents  l/100th  of  1%  of  its  units,  IBM  is  recalling 
every  one  sold.  The  spokeswoman  said  customers 
would  receive  notices  of  what  to  do  in  the  next  30  days 
and,  in  the  meantime,  they  should  remove  the  battery 
and  use  the  product  with  an  AC  adapter. 

Railway  begins  systems  revamp 

Canadian  National  Railways  in  Montreal  launched 
a  $100  million  project  last  week  that  will  peform  a 
“heart  transplant”  on  the  company’s  major  rail  man¬ 
agement  systems,  according  to  Ronan  McGrath,  vice 
president  of  information  systems  and  accounting.  Ca¬ 
nadian  National  will  replace  its  core  traffic  systems, 
currently  IBM  mainframe-based,  with  a  recently  de¬ 
veloped  integrated  traffic  management  system  from 
Santa  Fe  Pacific  Corp.  in  Chicago.  The  new  software 
is  also  mainframe-based  and  will  require  IBM’s  DB2. 
However,  McGrath’s  staff  will  design  a  graphical  front 
end  to  the  system  using  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Windows. 

Hanging  up  on  phone  crooks 

High-tech  thieves  who  fancy  stealing  cellular  phone 
service  may  soon  be  disconnected.  Software  makers 
Computer  Sciences  Corp.  and  Coral  Systems,  Inc. 
announced  last  week  that  they  will  team  up  with  the 
security  consultants  at  The  Guidry  Group  to  fight 
techno  crooks  who  steal  and  resell  more  than  $1  mil¬ 
lion  each  day  in  cellular  service. 

Marcam  names  Ross  in  patent  suit 

In  a  suit  filed  last  week  in  Boston,  Marcam  Corp.  al¬ 
leged  that  Ross  Systems,  Inc.’s  Promix  software  in¬ 
fringes  on  Marcam’s  patented  technique  of  determin¬ 
ing  a  bill  of  materials.  Marcam  uses  this  in  its  Prism 
software  for  the  IBM  Application  System/400.  Ross 
Chairman  Dennis  Vohs  said  the  suit  is  “without  mer¬ 
it.” 

DEC  net  management  to  support  NT 

Digital  Equipment  Corp.  announced  it  will  support 
networked  Microsoft  Windows  NT  systems  with  its 
Polycenter  network  management  platform.  DEC  said 
that  during  the  next  24  months  it  will  deliver  Windows 
NT  applications  for  monitoring  system  resource  use 
and  network  traffic  levels,  as  well  as  for  managing 
software  distribution  and  hardware  and  software 
configurations.  Like  Tivoli  Systems,  Inc.,  which  re¬ 
cently  announced  a  rival  NT  management  product, 
Polycenter  will  be  able  to  manage  a  mixture  of  NT, 
Windows  and  Unix  systems,  DEC  said.  Also  last  week, 
DEC  announced  Pathworks  for  NT. 

Shared  Medical  Systems  wins  award 

Joe  Carola,  manager  of  database  administration  at 
Shared  Medical  Systems  (SMS),  won  the  award  for 
Information  Excellence  at  the  International  DB2 
Users  Group  last  week.  Carola,  whose  department 
supports  hundreds  of  client  hospitals  tied  into  the 
SMS  environment,  “was  instrumental”  in  organizing 
and  developing  a  centralized  database  group. 

SHORT  TAKES  Microprocessor  maker  Cyrix  Corp.  sub¬ 
mitted  a  plan  to  the  Securities  and  Exchange  Commis¬ 
sion  to  raise  $25.4  million  with  an  initial  public  offer¬ 
ing  of  2  million  shares  of  common  stock _  Still 

reeling  from  the  competition  brought  on  by  the  March 
release  of  DOS  6.0,  Stac  Electronics,  Inc.  in  Carlsbad, 
Calif.,  last  week  laid  off  20%  of  its  200  employees. 


Client/server  on  users’  minds 

Database,  migration  issues  dominate  DB/2  Users  Group  meeting 


By  Johanna  Ambrosio 

DALLAS 


If  client/server  has  a  heart,  it  is 
usually  a  database.  Not  surpris¬ 
ingly,  the  1,000-plus  database  im¬ 
plementors  gathered  here  last 
week  spent  a  fair  amount  of  time 
talking  about  client/server  issues 
alongside  the  more  traditional 
mainframe  challenges  of  perfor¬ 
mance  and  availability. 

At  this  early  stage  in  the  client/ 
server  game,  many  attendees  at 
the  fifth  annual  meeting  of  the  In¬ 
ternational  DB/2  Users  Group 
were  asking  how-do-I-get-there- 
from-here?  kinds  of  questions.  The 
issues:  How  to  link  the  server  and 
mainframe  worlds,  how  to  figure 
out  where  to  put  the  data  and  what 
kinds  of  changes  to  the  mainframe 
database  all  this  might  require. 

A  client/server  panel,  made  up 
of  user  and  vendor  representa¬ 
tives,  drew  about  200  attendees. 


User  panelist  John  Baraldi,  vice 
president  at  Chase  Manhattan 
Bank  NA  in  New  York,  advised 
database  gurus  to  learn  more 
about  the  world  of  communica¬ 
tions. 

“Take  your  VTAM  person  and 
your  LAN  administrator  to  lunch 
and  become  real  good  friends,” 
Baraldi  said.  “You  don’t  need  to 
know  the  full  gamut  of  communi¬ 
cations  issues.”  But  database  ad¬ 
ministrators  need  to  understand 
the  impact  of  using  different  com¬ 
munications  protocols  —  i.e.,  us¬ 
ing  IBM  LU6.2  vs.  3270  connectiv¬ 
ity. 

Baraldi  said  Chase  decides 
where  to  put  applications  based  on 
which  platform  they  will  fit  on. 
“Our  largest  OS/2  database  is 
about  500M  bytes,  and  our  largest 
on  Unix  is  about  5G  bytes.  Every¬ 
thing  beyond  that  goes  on  a  main¬ 
frame,”  he  said. 

Other  attendees  had  different 


concerns,  including  training,  sup¬ 
port  and  cost.  “Just  the  middle¬ 
ware  piece  of  client/server  is  very 
expensive,”  said  David  Beulke, 
DB2  database  administration 
manager  at  Spiegel,  Inc.  in  West¬ 
mont,  Ill.  “There  are  a  lot  of  hidden 
costs,  like  the  LAN  administrator 
and  applications  person  in  the 
business  unit  and  backup  and  re¬ 
covery.” 

Some  users  said  their  compa¬ 
nies  are  going  wholehog  to  non¬ 
host  platforms  as  a  cost-control  is¬ 
sue.  Others  said  their  mainframe 
database  systems  are  continuing 
to  grow,  and  still  others  said  they 
have  both. 

Similarly,  not  all  are  staying 
faithful  to  IBM  off  the  host  plat¬ 
form.  “Some  are  using  or  install¬ 
ing  IBM’s  [workstation  and  serv¬ 
er]  products;  others  are  already 
using  other  vendors’  products,” 
said  Howard  Fosdick,  an  indepen¬ 
dent  consultant  in  Villa  Park,  Ill. 


Bank 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  1 

perience  will  make  him  a  valuable 
player  on  our  team  as  we  continue 
to  deploy  architectures  such  as  cli¬ 
ent/server,”  Packer  said. 

However,  he  added,  Anderson’s 
newly  minted  position  signals  no 
new  departure  for  the  bank.  “It’s 
just  part  of  our  continuingcommit- 
ment  to  client/server  architec¬ 
tures  that  allows  us  to  blend  the 
end-user  playpen  with  the  indus¬ 
trial-strength  data  center.  ” 

During  the  past  several  years, 
the  bank  has  steadily  implement¬ 
ed  client/server  applications, 
Packer  said.  One,  for  instance,  al¬ 
lows  clients  direct  access  to  trust 
and  pension  information.  Another 
gives  users  of  the  bank’s  “deriva¬ 
tives”  services  —  e.g.,  swaps,  op¬ 
tions,  warrants  —  access  to  risk 
management  information.  Infor¬ 
mation-  access  systems  for  corpo¬ 
rate  finance  professionals  now  op¬ 
erate  in  client/server  mode. 

According  to  Robert  Moll,  a 
banking  analyst  at  Arthur  D.  Lit¬ 
tle,  Inc.,  it  is  hard  to  find  a  major 
bank  that  is  not  making  a  foray  in¬ 
to  the  largely  unproven  area  of 
client/  server  computing  —  not¬ 
withstanding  many  pitfalls. 

“Client/server  is  compelling  for 
large  banks  because  most  of  them 
are  coming  to  realize  that  about 
75%  of  their  IS  resources  go  to¬ 
ward  maintaining  legacy  systems 
that  support  the  commodity  sideof 
banking,”  Moll  explained.  “To  re¬ 
deploy  these  resources  toward 
something  more  innovative,  more 


apt  to  offer  competitive  advan¬ 
tage,  they  have  to  encapsulate  the 
legacy  system  —  and  that’s  when 
they  start  thinking  client/server.” 

Encapsulation  is  an  increasing¬ 
ly  popular  approach  that  involves 
surrounding  older  mainframes 
with  gateways,  interfaces  and  util¬ 
ities  that  provide  users  with  easy 
access  and  ready  control  of  data. 

However  compelling  the  archi¬ 
tecture  maybe,  baby-stepping  into 


Don’t  trip 


The  path  to  client/server  is 
strewn  with  obstacles,  said 
Robert  Moll,  analyst  at  Ar¬ 
thur  D.  Little.  Among  them 
are  the  following: 

►A  deluge  of  aggressively 
marketed  products  in  a 
largely  untried  area  quickly 
translates  into  confusion  for 
banks  on  tight  budgets. 
►Estimatingthe  time  and 
cost  of  a  client/server  initia¬ 
tive  is  close  to  impossible, 
“particularly  when  the 
methodologies  advocated 
differ  widely.” 
►Expectations  run  danger¬ 
ously  high,  settingup  cheer¬ 
leaders  and  users  alike  for  a 
fall.  Moll’s  advice:  “Don’t  try 
to  build  a  super-duper-dup- 
er  workstation  that’s  going 
to  cure  every  problem  in  the 
company.  Keep  it  simple.” 
►Demand  for  client/server- 
sawy  professionals  far  out¬ 
strips  supply. 


client/server  rather  than  attempt¬ 
ing  a  rapid  ramp-up  is  the  way  sav¬ 
vy  banks  are  going  to  go,  said  Andy 
Roehr,  a  banking  analyst  at  BSG 
Consulting,  Inc.  in  Houston. 

“If  you  want  to  learn  to  walk, 
don’t  do  it  on  a  balance  beam,”  he 
said.  “Nobody’s  moving  their  [dai¬ 
ly  deposit  accounting]  applica¬ 
tions.  They’re  starting  with  lower 
level  applications  like  account 
maintenance — things  that  are  not 
mission-critical  to  the  bank.” 

Ace  In  the  hole 

Bankers  Trust,  noted  Joseph  Zi- 
skin,  an  analyst  at  the  Boston- 
based  Ernst  &  Young  Center  for 
Information  Technology  and 
Strategy,  holds  an  additional  ace 
when  it  comes  to  client/server  im¬ 
plementation:  years  of  experience 
as  a  trading  center. 

“Companies  with  large  trading 
organizations  are  far  more  ad¬ 
vanced  in  sophisticated  transac¬ 
tion  processing,  in  Unix,  in  open 
systems  —  they’ve  been  dealing 
with  these  questions  for  years,” 
Ziskin  said. 

Meanwhile,  at  Aetna,  Ander¬ 
son’s  departure  translated  into 
promotions  for  two  of  his  col¬ 
leagues. 

Ann  Dunphy,  former  program 
manager  of  market -driven  quality, 
is  stepping  into  Anderson’s  shoes 
on  an  interim  basis.  Scott  McAlin- 
den,  Aetna’s  information  technol¬ 
ogy  chief  of  staff,  becomes  vice 
president  and  chief  administra¬ 
tive  officer  of  a  new  organization, 
AIT  Administration  &  Finance, 
created  by  the  merger  of  the  chief 
of  staff’s  office  and  the  finance  and 
planning  group. 


16  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Which  Problems  Take  Priority? 


■Ms 

Operations 


T 

CSF 


2  Oxide  Detect 
5  Doping 


□  Medium 


Critical  Success  Factors 


Inventory 


Revenue 


Expenses 


People  and  the  Information  They  Need 

^  With  the  S AS®  System  —  % 

The  World’s  Leading  Information  Delivery  System. 


// 


A  lot  of  obstacles  stand  between  your  organization’s  two 
most  important  assets:  people  and  the  information  they 
need  to  make  better  decisions.  With  the  SAS  System,  you 
can  deliver  the  right  information  to  the  right  people  at  the 
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barriers  created  by... 

Diverse  Data  Sources 

The  SAS  System  turns  your  organization’s  “islands  of  in¬ 
formation”  into  generalized  resources  available  to  any  user 
or  application— no  matter  where  or  how  data  are  stored, 
from  popular  databases  to  remote  external  files. 


menus  for  business  analysts,  an  object-oriented  applica¬ 
tions  development  environment,  or  a  full-screen  display 
environment  just  for  programmers. 

Diverse  Computing  Platforms 

The  SAS  System  maximizes  the  effective  use  of  your  entire 
computing  mix— from  PCs  and  workstations  to  minicom¬ 
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particular  advantages  of  specific  environments.  Plus  the 
ability  to  implement  cooperative  processing  by  segmenting 
applications  any  way  you  choose. 


Diverse  Applications 

The  applications  that  drive  your  enterprise  are  fully  inte¬ 
grated  in  the  SAS  System— everything  from  EIS  and  de¬ 
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management.  This  comprehensive  approach  eliminates 
the  need  for  single -shot  software  solutions  that  have  made 
a  patchwork  quilt  of  your  applications  strategy. 

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The  specific  needs  and  experience  level  of  every  client — 
from  new  computer  users  to  seasoned  pros— are  met 
through  personalized  interfaces.  Take  advantage  of  icon- 
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For  your  free  video  introduction  to  the  SAS  System,  give 
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Phone  919-677-8200  □  Fax  919-677-8123 


SAS  is  a  registered  trademark  of  SAS  Institute  Inc. 
Copyright  ©  1992  by  SAS  Institute  Inc.  Printed  in  the  USA. 


The  Compaq  LTE  Lite.  For 
TheirUme  Working.  And 


OK,  we’re  not  saying  you  live  on  three  hours  of  sleep, 
or  that  you  eat  Chinese  takeout  every  night.  And  even 
if  you  do,  we’re  not  saying  that  a  COMPAQ  LTE  Lite 
486SL  notebook  is  suddenly  going  to  change  all  that. 


There’s  the  integrated 
Easy  Point  trackball.  And 
each  has  a  range  of  inno¬ 
vative  power- conservation 
features  to  help  extend 
battery  life. 

But  what  also  makes 
these  notebooks  unique  is 


What  we  will  say  is 


that  it  could  make 


your 


life  a  lot  simpler.  Partic¬ 
ularly  if  you  travel. 

You  see,  on  one  hand, 
these  new  computers 
are  lightweight,  compact 
notebooks  (6.3  pounds, 
8.5" x  11").  They’re  avail¬ 


able  with  three  different 


screens:  the  COMPAQ  black  and  white,  active 
UltraView  —  the  world’s  matrix  VGA;  a  256-color 


active  matrix:  and  the 


highly  acclaimed  passive 
monochrome  MaxLight. 


Simply  slide  the  LTE  Lite 
notebook  into  the  COMPAQ 
Desktop  Expansion  Base 
and  you  have  a  full-junc¬ 
tion,  fully  connected 
desktop  computer. 


f  199J  lompq  Computer  Corporation  All  Right*  Reserved.  COMPAQ  and  LTE  Registered  U.S.  Patent  and  Trademark  Office.  UltraView,  MaxLight,  Easy  Point,  Enhanced  Quick  Connect,  Compaq  Care  and  SpeedPAQ  are  trade 
marks  of  Compaq  Computer  Corporation.  Product  name*  mentioned  herein  may  be  trademarks  and/or  registered  trademarks  of  their  respective  companies.  The  Intel  Inside  Logo  is  a  registered  trademark  of  the  Intel  Corporation. 


1  People  Who  Spend  Half 
The  Other  Half  Working. 


easy  connection  to  your 
peripherals,  choose  the 
new  Enhanced  QuickCon- 
nect  —  a  one-step  system 
with  integrated  Ethernet 
and  SCSI  support. 

And  like  all  of  our 
PCs,  these  notebooks  are 
backed  by  CompaqCare. 
Which  includes  a  free, 
three-year  worldwide 
warranty,  and  a  year  of 
free  on-site*  service  in 
the  U.S.  or  Canada. 

For  information  on 
the  COMPAQ  LTE  Lite 
486SL,  call  1-800-345-1518. 
Because  if  you  work  out 
of  the  office  on  a  regular 
basis,  you  really  lead  two 
lives.  So  they’re  perfect 
for  you.  And  you. 

COMPAQ 


Unlike  other  486  chips,  the  Intel 
486SL,  with  an  integrated  numeric 
coprocessor,  provides  higher  perfor¬ 
mance  and  extended  battery  life. 


No  wires,  no  interface  boxes,  no 
headaches.  The  optional Jully  in¬ 
tegrated  COMPACfSpeedPACfl  44 
Modem  connects  the  LTE  Lite 
directly  to  a  cellular  phone  so  you 
can  send  e-mail  and  faxes. 


bays  increase  expansion 
capabilities.  Best  of  all, 
you’re  using  the  same 
hard  drive.  So  whether 
you’re  in  the  office  or  on 


the  road,  your  files  are 
always  with  you.  The 
expansion  base  also  of¬ 
fers  you  a  keylock  to 
secure  your  notebook. 

Of  course,  if  you  don’t 
need  all  the  functions  of 
a  full-sized  PC,  but  want 


that  they  double  as  full- 
sized,  full-featured  486 
desktop  PCs. 

By  simply  sliding  your 
LTE  Lite  notebook  into 


the  COMPAQ  Desktop 
Expansion  Base,  you’re 
instantly  connected  to 
printers,  peripherals  and 
your  network.  No  flop¬ 
pies,  no  fumbling  with 
wires,  no  headaches.  And 
the  extra  slots  and  drive 


•This  service  is  provided  by  Contracted  Service  Providers  and  may  not  be  available  in  certain  geographic  locations.  Certain  restrictions  and  exclusions  apply.  Monitors,  battery  packs  and  certain  options  are  covered  by  a  one-year  war 
ranty.  For  further  details  on  our  limited  warranty,  contact  the  Compaq  Customer  Support  Center. 


News 


Next  plunges  into  software  with  partnerships 


By  James  Daly 

SANFRANCISCO 


Next,  Inc.  Chairman  Steve  Jobs  hosted  a 
revival  meeting  at  last  week’s  Next  World 
Expo,  crowning  the  firm’s  born-again 
status  as  a  software  company  with  key 
industry  partnerships. 

He  indicated,  however, 
that  if  the  software  strat¬ 
egy  does  not  stick,  his 
company  is  finished.  Jobs 
did  not  provide  a  time 
frame  for  that  decision, 
saying  he  would  have  to 
see  how  successful  the 
new  strategy  becomes. 

“Next  still  has  at  least 
$10  million  from  Steve 
and  a  $50  million  line  of 
credit  from  Canon,  so  this 
is  not  their  swan  song 
yet,”  said  Tim  Bajarin, 
president  of  Creative 
Strategies  Research  In¬ 
ternational,  Inc.  in  Santa 
Clara,  Calif. 

Jobs,  who  addressed 
an  audience  of  at  least  2,000  for  nearly 
two  hours,  announced  the  availability  of 
a  new  version  of  the  NextStep  object-ori¬ 
ented  operating  system  that  works  on 
PCs  and  workstations  running  Intel 
Corp.  I486  microprocessors. 

“We  have  liberated  NextStep  from  the 
black  box,”  Jobs  said,  referring  to  the 
company’s  slow-selling  workstations, 


which  were  scrapped  in  February  to  al¬ 
low  Next  to  focus  on  NextStep  [CW,  Feb. 

15]. 

Hewlett-Packard  Co.,  Compaq  Com¬ 
puter  Corp.,  Digital  Equipment  Corp.  and 
NCR  Corp.  have  joined  the  list  of  PC  man¬ 
ufacturers  that  will  offer  NextStep  486  as 
an  option  on  their  systems.  Borland  In¬ 
ternational,  Inc.  also  an¬ 
nounced  plans  to  port  its 
InterBase  relational  data¬ 
base  to  NextStep  486, 
although  no  general  avail¬ 
ability  date  was  an¬ 
nounced. 

Although  NextStep  has 
been  available  for  more 
than  four  years,  its  pro¬ 
prietary  nature  had  made 
it  a  difficult  sell.  “Next 
was  never  an  option  be¬ 
fore  because  we  had  no  in¬ 
terest  in  going  to  a  new 
platform,”  said  MikeAdel- 
son,  project  manager  of 
branch  automation/retail 
systems  at  Chrysler  Corp. 
subsidiary  Chrysler  Fi¬ 
nancial  in  Southfield,  Mich. 

Chrysler  Financial  now  plans  to  pur¬ 
chase  2,500  copies  of  NextStep  486, 
which  will  be  used  in  a  client/server  envi¬ 
ronment  to  support  more  than  100 
branches  throughout  North  America. 

PuttingNextStep  on  the  Intel  platform 
also  lessens  the  fear  factor.  “People  don’t 
want  to  think  that  they  have  to  junk  their 


systems  to  tap  into  Next;  this  lessens  that 
perceived  risk,”  said  Dwight  Koop,  exec¬ 
utive  director  of  information  technology 
at  Swiss  Bank  Corp.  in  Lisle,  Ill. 

NextStep  users  have  long  praised  its 
design  as  one  that  makes  it  easier  to  re¬ 
use  large  chunks  of  software  code.  They 
say  it  delivers  today  the  kind  of  object- 
oriented  programmingenvironment  that 
potential  rivals  —  such  as  the  Apple 
Computer,  Inc./IBM  joint  venture  Tali- 
gent,  Inc.  or  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Cairo  — 


project  they  will  not  deliver  before  1995. 

But  analysts  said  the  chances  of  Next’s 
taking  over  this  object-oriented  develop¬ 
ment  market  are  slim,  as  Microsoft  and 
Taligent  are  likely  to  be  the  real  operat¬ 
ing  system  powerhouses  in  the  future. 

“NextStep  is  as  good  as  anything 
that’s  out  there,  but  the  move  [to  develop 
custom  applications]  may  not  be  as  fast 
as  Jobs  likes,”  said  David  Card,  director 
of  systems  research  at  International 
Data  Corp.  in  Mountain  View,  Calif. 


Riding  HP’s  desktop  coattails 


ext’s  partnership  with 
Hewlett-Packard  is  the 
firm’s  best  chance  to  move 
the  NextStep  486  onto  the 
corporate  desktop,  via  HP 
workstations  and  PCs. 
Next  Chairman  Steve 
Jobs  said  the  firms’  Object  Enterprise 
partnership  will  provide  one-stop 
shopping  for  users  who  want  to  bring 
an  object-oriented  framework  to  a 
client/server  environment. 

Next  will  port  NextStep  to  a  spec¬ 
trum  of  HP  computers,  including  Vec- 
tra  PCs,  the  HP  Apollo  9000  Series  700 
workstations  and  Series  700  and  800 
servers.  The  Object  Enterprise  initia¬ 
tive  will  also  integrate  key  computing 


standards  such  as  the  Object  Manage¬ 
ment  Group’s  Corba  and  the  Open 
Software  Foundation’s  Distributed 
ComputingEnvironment  and  Distrib¬ 
uted  Management  Environment. 

Jobs  said  the  partnership  will  ini¬ 
tially  concentrate  on  selling  to  finan¬ 
cial  services  users,  who  were  among 
the  first  to  embrace  workstations  and 
object-oriented  tools. 

HP  hopes  the  partnership  will  give 
it  added  punch  in  combating  Sun  Mi¬ 
crosystems,  Inc.,  its  traditional  rival 
in  the  battle  for  the  hearts  and  wallets 
of  the  financial  industry,  noted  Ruann 
Ernst,  HP’s  director  of  financial  ser¬ 
vices  industry  marketing. 

— James  Daly 


Steve  Jobs:  Liberated  from 
the  black  box 


Distributed  systems 

Delayed  DME 
awaits  Corba 

By  Elisabeth  Horwitt 

BOSTON 


General  availability  of  Distributed  Manage¬ 
ment  Environment  (DME),  the  Open  Software 
Foundation’s  (OSF)  object-oriented  platform 
for  managing  distributed  systems,  will  be  de¬ 
layed  until  it  incorporates  the  Common  Object 
Request  Broker  Architecture  (Corba),  OSF  di¬ 
rector  of  DME  programs  Peter  Shaw  said  last 
week. 

Corba  is  an  Object  Management  Group 
(OMG)  standard  that  defines  a  common  set  of 
programminginterfaces  by  which  applications 
can  handle  the  tasks,  devices,  functions  and 
pieces  of  data  involved  in  getting  a  job  done. 
The  OSF  will  incorporate  management-specific 
features  into  Corba,  as  well  as  a  “persistence” 
of  objects  that  ensures  that  a  device  or  func¬ 
tion,  once  activated,  does  not  disappear  when 
the  job  is  completed,  Shaw  said. 

In  addition,  the  OSF  and  the  OMG  need  time 
to  work  with  vendors  to  provide  interoperabili¬ 
ty  across  different  implementations  of  Corba, 
he  said. 

Shaw  would  not  give  a  time  frame  for  imple¬ 
menting  Corba  within  DME.  A  spokesman  at 
IBM,  which  is  integrat  ing  Corba  into  DME,  esti¬ 


mated  that  would  occur  in  the  second  quarter 
of  next  year  [CW,  May  24]. 

On  the  other  hand,  DME  Distributed  Ser¬ 
vices,  a  set  of  basic  management  services  for 
managing  Distributed  Computing  Environ¬ 
ment  (DCE)-based  systems,  is  on  schedule  to 
ship  by  year’s  end,  Shaw  said.  The  code  is 
“functionally  complete”  for  the  services,  which 
include  software  distribution,  license  manage¬ 
ment  and  services  that  enable  a  DME  system  to 
manage  any  PC  running  DCE. 

Moving  across  nodes 

The  OSF  has  also  “created  a  mechanism”  that 
allows  applications  based  on  the  services  to 
manage  systems  via  Transmission  Control 
Protocol/Internet  Protocol  rather  than  DCE, 
Shaw  said.  What  DCE  provides,  however,  is  an 
environment  for  distributing  management  ap¬ 
plications  and  systems  across  multiple  nodes. 

Groupe  Bull  and  Hewlett-Packard  Co.  are  ex¬ 
pected  to  finish  co-developing  the  Network 
Management  Option  portion  of  the  framework 
by  the  first  quarter  of  1994. 

This  piece  incorporates  the  X/Open  Co.’s 
Management  Protocol,  a  common  application 
programming  interface  (API)  that  enables  net¬ 
work  management  applications  to  work  with 
either  Common  Management  Information  Pro¬ 
tocol-  or  Simple  Network  Management  Proto¬ 
col-compliant  systems. 

The  OSF  will  enhance  the  interface  with  sup¬ 
port  for  its  object-oriented  framework,  Shaw 
said.  But  this  means  that  until  the  framework 
is  ready,  users  might  as  well  purchase  the  ex¬ 
isting  API  from  other  channels,  he  added. 


DCE  products  ready,  but  users  waiting 


By  Jean  S.  Bozman 

BOSTON 


A  wave  of  products  based  on  the 
Open  Software  Foundation’s 
(OSF)  Distributed  Computing  En¬ 
vironment  (DCE)  technology  made 
an  appearance  at  the  OSF’s  inter¬ 
operability  showcase  last  week. 
However,  users  said  they  do  not 
expect  to  run  DCE  applications  in 
production  until  next  year. 

Users  attending  Challenge  ’93 
seemed  pleased  with  the  demon¬ 
strated  prototypes  of  distributed 
applications  built  on  OSF  technol¬ 
ogy.  “The  vendors  cooperated, 
and  an  awful  lot  of  this  stuff  actu¬ 
ally  worked,”  said  Tony  Carrato,  a 
member  of  the  OSF’s  end-user 
steering  committee  and  a  princi¬ 
pal  consultant  at  Mile-High  Infor¬ 
mation  Services,  Inc.  in  Denver. 

“It’s  taken  just  about  two  years 
from  the  time  OSF  first  said  DCE 
was  shipping  until  we’re  finally  go¬ 
ing  to  get  a  critical  mass  of  prod¬ 
ucts,”  said  Roy  Schulte,  a  vice 
president  at  Gartner  Group,  Inc.’s 
Software  Management  Strategies 
service. 

OSF  President  David  Tory  at¬ 
tributed  the  delay  in  part  to  “a  long 


hiatus  while  the  Motif  technology 
was  being  productized  by  the  ven¬ 
dors.” 

Users  said  they  expect  to  have 
DCE  applications  in  production  by 
next  year  at  the  earliest.  Several 
attendees  said  they  are  just  get¬ 
ting  started  with  OSF  technology, 
monitoring  the  OSF/1  operating 
system,  DCE  technology  and  Dis¬ 
tributed  Management  Environ¬ 
ment  networking  technology  be¬ 
fore  implementing  it.  These  users 
said  they  would  like  to  see  more 
DCE  tools  for  debugging  and  test¬ 
ing  DCE  applications  before  com- 
mittingto  use  it  in  production. 

“I’m  waiting  for  all  the  pieces  of 
DCE  because  I  want  to  have  a  sin¬ 
gle,  uniform  naming  space,”  said 
David  Nessl,  a  systems  program¬ 
mer  at  the  University  of  Florida’s 
data  center  in  Gainesville,  Fla. 

His  site  has  been  running  the 
OSF’s  operating  system,  in  the 
form  of  IBM’s  AIX  for  Enterprise 
Systems  Architecture,  for  nearly  a 
year.  But  distributed  applications 
that  link  mainframe  AIX  files  with 
distributed  Unix  workstation  files 
will  require  DCE’s  naming  ser¬ 
vices  as  well  as  its  Distributed  File 
System,  Nessl  said. 


20  Computerworld  MAY  31,  1993 


Will  you  get  stuck 
with  the  wrong 
tool  for  the  job? 

Things  could  get  pretty  sticky  if  you  buy  the  wrong 
business  computer. 

That's  why  I/S  professionals  like  you  are  moving  to 
the  right  tool  for  the  job:  workstations. 

And  when  you  compare  workstations,  you'll  see  that 
only  one  comes  from  a  company  completely  dedicated 
to  the  needs  of  business. 

Axil  Workstations. 

We're  a  new  kind  of  workstation  company.  Our 
focus  is  delivering  SPARC  systems  built  specifically  to 
accelerate  the  productivity  of  business. 

Which  we're  doing  for  hundreds  of  customers  world¬ 
wide  by  providing  quality,  American-made  products  with 
business  features.  Plus  flexible  configurations.  And  mod¬ 
ular,  upgradeable  systems  that  protect  your  investment. 

Axil  workstations  will  also  run  your  existing  software. 

In  fact,  we  guarantee  it.  For  proof,  just  look  at  our 
90-day  SPARC  Compliant 
money-back  guarantee. 

As  well  as  our  Executive 
Membership  in  SPARC 
International. 

And  you  can  always  count  on  solid  support.  Not  just 
from  Axil,  but  from  our  committed  VAR  partners  too. 

So  call  800-284-AXIL.  Learn  about  the  new 
workstation  company  that's  backed  by  Hyundai  and 
committed  to  really  getting  your  business  cooking. 


The  business  engine 

Axil 

WORKSTATIONS 


Ad  Wbrislations  is  a  division  of  Hyundai  Electronic  America.  Hyundai  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Hyundai  Electronics  Industries,  Inc.  Other  trademarked  names  are  owned  by  their  respective  companies  or  organizations. 


>■::  V  • 


ow 


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iiililiiliilllliCiliitlHiilllili 


Now,  it  couldn’t  be  easier  to  bring  the  IBM  AS/400,®  the 
midrange  computer  of  choice,  to  the  desktop  system  of 

your  choice. 

Introducing  the  IBM  AS/400 
Client  Series™  client/server  software  for 
end  users  and  application  developers. 

Whether  you’re  running  seven 
client  PCs,  or  seven  hundred, 
making  the  move  to  client/server 
computing  is  easy.  Because 

,  _  the  software  is  already 

k  preloaded  and  pre- 
pk  configured  to  your 
specifications  when  you  receive  the  AS/400 
hardware. 

And  if  you’re  one  of  the  200,000 
to  whom  AS/400s  have  already  been  shipped, 
you  can  get  a  single  package  of  software 
that  loads  right  into  your  system.  So  you 

can  concentrate  on  your  job,  not  ,  J|f  or  even  good  old  DOS,  your 

on  your  computer.  job  will  be  easier.  You’ll  be  able 

If  you’re  running  OS/2,®  to  take  advantage  of  programs  such 

Windows,®  Apple’s  System  7,  ^.^0*  as  Rumba/400  and  SNA-ps  5250,  which 

let  you  operate  your  business  applications 
with  a  mouse.  And  ShowCase™  VISTA, which 


Toms 

Windows 


lets  you  query  the  AS/400’s  database  and  view 
the  results  graphically.  Plus  Personal  AS 
for  decision  support. 

If  you’re  a  developer,  your  job  will 
be  easier,  too.  You’ll  have  popular  tools, 
including  Progress/400, ™  SQL  Windows,® 
and  Synon/CSG.®  There’s  also  ENVY/400® 
for  object-oriented  development,  and 
TRACK  for  Executive  Information  Support, 
all  helping  you  develop  and  run  mission- 
critical  applications  from  your  desktop. 


Guest 


-Klil-r; 

r~ 

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mum 

E£** 

WWBWt': 

RM 

John  s  9 
OS/2  — 


Susan’s 

Apple 


Whether  you're  working  in  OS/2,  Windows  3.1.  Aggie  or  DOS,  AS/400  Client/Sener  lets 
you  get  to  data  and  agglications  anywhere  in  the  network. 


'Source:  International  Data  Corp.  IBM,  AS/400  and  OS/2  are  registered  trademarks  and  Progress/400  and  Client  Series  are 
Apple  Computer,  Inc.  Showcase  is  a  trademark  of  Rochester  Software  Connection.  SQL  Windows  is  a  registered  trademark 


Client  Series 


server 


But  you’ll  also  get  more  than  just  the  open  advantages  that 
come  with  client/server  computing. 

You’ll  also  benefit  from  the  advanced  capabilities  of  the  award¬ 
winning  AS/400.  Every  AS/400  comes  with  an  integrated  relational 
database,  enhanced  security,  impressive  networking  capabilities 
and  outstanding  systems  management.  These  features,  combined 
with  over  20,000  proven  commercial  applications,  have 
made  the  AS/400  the  world’s  most  popular  midrange  system. 
What’s  more,  the  AS/400  is  very  affordable,  with 


Wvssss 

,  ^  .-'-.VI'1 


iJL 


in 


the  lowest  five-year  cost  of  ownership  in  its  class.* 

As  always,  you’ll  get  superior  IBM  service  and  support, 
including  a  24-hour  hotline,  to  help  keep  the  mission-critical 
applications  your  business  depends  on,  up  and  running. 


No  matter  what  your  hardware,  you'll  be  able  to  maintain  all  your  network  business 
connections  with  AS/400  Client/Server. 

It’s  for  reasons  like  these  that  successful 
companies  such  as  Mannington  Carpets  and 
Louis  Dreyfus  Energy  have  already  chosen  the 
AS/400  for  client/server  applications. 

For  more  details  on  the  IBM  AS/400  Client 
Series,  call  1  800  IBM-CALL,  ext.  102B. 

But  hurry.  You're  losing 
valuable  nanoseconds. 


Success  isn’t  complicated. 


■JBBtS  at* 


!/ 


trademarks  of  International  Business  Machines  Corporation.  Windows  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Microsoft  Inc.  Apple,  System  7  and  SNA  ps  5250  are  trademarks  of 
of  Gupta  Corp.  Synon/CSG  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Synon  Corp.  ENVY/400  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Object  Technology  International,  Inc.  ©  1993  IBM  Corp. 


News 


-v..  u.’  .i£ei  networking 

New  VTAM  brings  users  closer  to  APPN 


By  Elisabeth  Horwitt 

ARMONK,  N.Y. 


IBM  last  week  started  Systems  Network 
Architecture  (SNA)  users  on  the  long, 
rocky  migration  path  to  Advanced  Peer- 
to-Peer  Networking  (APPN)  —  the  ven¬ 


dor’s  next-generation  enterprise  net¬ 
work  architecture  —  with  the  shipment 
of  ACF/VTAM  Version  4,  Release  1.  The 
software  enables  other  APPN  nodes  to 
access  IBM  hosts  over  peer-to-peer  links. 

Users  are  still  awaiting  the  ability  to 
provide  their  widespread  3270-to-host 


networks  with  key  APPN  benefits  such  as 
the  addition  and  deletion  of  devices  with¬ 
out  manual  network  table  updates  and 
automatic  calculation  of  multihop 
routes,  according  to  David  Passmore,  a 
vice  president  at  Gartner  Group,  Inc.,  a 
consulting  firm  in  Stamford,  Conn. 


VTAM  4.1  gives  those  benefits  to  links 
between  hosts  and  OS/2,  Application 
System/400,  6611  routers  and  other  de¬ 
vices  supporting  APPN.  However,  the 
broad  base  of  traditional  terminal-to- 
host  SNA  networks  will  not  be  migrat¬ 
able  to  APPN  until  IBM  ships  VTAM  4.2, 
with  its  dependent  LU  server  requester 
function,  sometime  nextyear.  SNAtermi- 
nals  will  be  able  to  reach  resources  on  an 
APPN  network  by  accessing  a  VTAM  4.1 
host  over  a  traditional  SNA  link. 

VTAM  4.1  works  in  combination  with 
IBM’s  Network  Control  Program  Version 
3,  Release  2,  shipped  in  March,  to  convert 
an  IBM  host  and  front-end  processor  into 
an  APPN  Network  Node,  End  Node  or  cen¬ 
tral  directory  server.  The  IBM  host  can 
then  exchange  information  with  other 
APPN  nodes  about  its  attached  re¬ 
sources,  keep  track  of  resources  across 
the  network  and  cooperate  with  other 
nodes  to  route  transmissions  efficiently. 

Canada  Mortgage  and  Housing  Corp. 
has  been  beta-testing  VTAM  4.1  as  a  way 
to  directly  link  its  AS/400s  to  an  IBM 
mainframe  [CW,  April  26].  The  Ottawa 
firm  lacks  an  extensive  SNA  subarea  net¬ 
work,  so  it  has  “minimal  interest”  in  the 
future  VTAM  4.2’s  ability  to  replace  3270- 
to-host  links  with  APPN,  according  to 
Ken  Smith,  systems  software  manager. 

Of  greater  interest  to  the  mortgage 
firm  is  a  product  now  under  development 
at  IBM  that  will  encapsulate  3270  within 
a  LU6.2  connection,  Smith  said.  This 
would  allow  users  to  access  3270  main¬ 
frame  applications,  “which  will  stick 
around  for  10  years  or  more,”  from  intel¬ 
ligent,  graphics-based  PC  environments 
such  as  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Windows. 

The  information  systems  department 
could  then  “parcel  all  the  handshaking 
and  steps  users  need  to  go  through  to  ac¬ 
cess  a  particular  host  application,  as  a 
series  of  screens,”  Smith  said. 

IBM  will  announce  encapsulation  of 
3270  data  streams  within  LU6.2,  proba¬ 
bly  around  the  same  time  it  announces 
VTAM  4.2,  a  company  spokesman  said. 
LU6.2  encapsulation  will  enable  3270  de¬ 
vices  to  transmit  over  APPN  networks; 
however,  the  throughput  will  not  be  as 
good  as  over  the  “native  APPN  connec¬ 
tions”  that  will  be  possible  through  the 
dependent  LU  server  requester. 

The  new  VTAM  software  also  supports 
full-duplex,  channel-based  connections 
between  two  hosts,  “so  you  can  be  read- 
ingoveronechannel  and  writingover  an¬ 
other,”  an  IBM  spokesman  said. 

The  basic  monthly  licensingcharge  for 
VTAM  4.1  ranges  from  $583  to  $12,0 10,  de- 
pendingon  CPU  size. 


HOWTO 
SELL  USED 
EQUIPMENT. 

Advertise  in  Computerworld’s 
Classifieds.  They  work. 

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First,  Faster,  Fastest.  The  Smart  MC32 
Streaming  Ringnode  puts  your  Token  Ring 
Network  on  the  fast  track. 


First. 

The  Smart  16/4  MC32  Ringnode  was 
the  first  MicroChannel  adapter  card  to 
achieve  full  32-bit  performance  on  a 
Token  Ring  network.  It  is  the  proven 
solution  for  high-performance  servers, 
gateways,  and  workstations,  including 
IBM  Model  95  systems  utilizing 
Streaming  mode.  And  now  Madge  is 
first  again  with  AIX  support  delivering 
this  unprecedented  full  throttle  perfor¬ 
mance  to  RS/6000  machines. 

Faster. 

Madge  is  also  faster  at  delivering  value- 
added  enhancements.  Because  Madge 
achieves  its  product  performance  and 
functionality  advantages  through  soft¬ 
ware,  Madge  Smart 
Ringnodes  are  field 
upgradable.  So  you 
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At  30,000  frames  per  second,  the  Smart 
MC32  delivers  the  highest  Token  Ring 
performance  in  the  industry.  You  sim¬ 
ply  can’t  go  any  faster. 

Put  your  Token  Ring  network  on  the 
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MC32  Ringnodes  from  Madge. 

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PERFORMANCE 


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Smart  Networking 


It  runs  with 
NetWare 


All  rights  resawed  Madge  and  Smart  Ringnodes  are  tradema 
I  other  trademarks  are  the  property  of  their  respect tve  owners 
h  f«st  Street  SyrJose  CA96131 


24  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Introducing  Obje< tVie w  2.0. 

The  client/server  development 
tool  that  does  more,  is  easier 
to  use,  and  costs  less. 

Guaranteed. 


Discover  the 

ObjectView  2.0  now 

Knowledge  is  power, 
and  at  the  heart  of 
knowledge  is  informa¬ 
tion.  The  power  to  perform 
at  the  peak  of  potential 
depends  on  the  ability  of 
your  enterprise  to  access 
and  manage  information 
quickly,  flexibly  and  simply, 
from  any  desktop. 

Which  is  why  ObjectView  2.0 
from  KnowledgeWare  is 
arguably  the  most  powerful 
Windows-based  tool  available 
for  creating  mission-critical 
client/server  applications  rang¬ 
ing  from  decision  support  to 
on-line  complex  processing. 
ObjectView  2.0  combines 
power  with  an  intuitive  inter¬ 
face  and  an  open  architecture 
that  supports  a  wide  range  of 
databases  and  products.  So 
your  company  can  reap  the 
benefits  of  client/server  today. 

Save  $1,800 
with  this  no-risk  offer 

If  you’ve  ever  considered  the 
move  to  client/server  or  even  if 
you're  using  another  product, 
you  owe  it  to  yourself  to  take 
advantage  of  this  offer. 
Because  for  a  limited  time 
we're  offering  ObjectView 
2.0,  regularly  $2,799,  at  an 
introductory  price  of  just  $999. 
Try  it  risk-free  for  30  days. 
Your  satisfaction  is  guaranteed 
or  we'll  refund  the  sale  price. 
But  we're  confident  you’ll  be 
impressed  by  ObjectView  2.0, 
and  here  are  just  some  of  the 
reasons  why: 

Power  without 
complexity 

What  good  is  power  if  you 
can’t  put  it  to  work? 
ObjectView  2.0  has  the  built-in 
intelligence  to  access  up  to 
eight  relational  databases 


from  a  single  application.  The 
unique  panel  object  gives 
developers  unmatched  flexibil¬ 
ity  to  design  interfaces  inde¬ 
pendent  of  underlying  data¬ 
bases.  A  spreadsheet  object 
and  built-in  business  graphics 
enable  end  users  to  calculate, 
analyze,  format  and  incorporate 
1  1  types  of  graphs,  all  without 
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A 


KnowledgeWare 


Why  PowerBook  is  popular 
with  people  who  know  nothing 

about  computers. 


Fits  any  business.  Pour r Book 
am  run  thousands  of  Macintosh’ 
programs  <md,  with  software 
like  SoflPC.  thousands  of  MS-DOS 
programs,  too. 


There  are  literally  hundreds 
of  technical  reasons  why  our  Apple" 
PowerBook"  computers  are  the  country's 
best  selling  notebooks.  But  the  biggest  reason  isn’t  technical  at  all. 

That  is.  anyone  can  pick  up  a  PowerBook  and  get  things  done  right 
away  The  re  s  no  need  to  learn  strange  commands  or  deal  with  confusing 
s\stem  configuration  files,  as  tliere  is  with  other  notebooks. 

Aim!  because  l\nverBook  computers  are  so  easy  to  use.  they  get  used 


more  often.  Which  can  help  make  people  noticeably  more  effective  in 
their  work  and  more  successful  in  reaching  their  goals. 

No  matter  how  far  PowerBook  users  travel,  they'  can  easily'  retrieve 
files  from  their  desktop  computers.  Access  information  from  the  company 
database.  Exchange  e-mail  messages.  Even  send  and  receive  faxes. 

Now  people  in  every  kind  of  business  are  using  Pow  erBook  to  make 
dramatic  leaps  in  productivity.  They’re  finding  it  doesn’t  matter  how  much 
they  know  about  computers  -  as  long  as  they  have  the  right  computer. 


Always  in  touch.  By  adding 
AppleTalk  Remote  Access  software 
and  an  internal  Jdx/mtjdem. 
users  slay  connected  to  all  the 
network  resources. 


Highly  compatible.  With  the  built  m 

.Apple  SuperDrwe'  and  the  ngbt  software, 
PowerBook  can  read from  and  ante  to 
MS-DOS  disks 


Eye-catching  presentations. 

Apple  QuickTime'  software  makes  it 
easy  for  PowerBook  users  to  put  on 
a  dramatic  display  anywhere,  with 
rideo.  animation  and  sound. 


Service  at  your  fingertips.  Apples 
toll-free  repair  hotline  ensures  that 
PowerBook  owners  bate  access 
to  fast  service  anywhere  in  the  U.S. 


t  J«L  r«0H» 


*****  4  ypi,  ft*  / 


Why  PowerBook  is  popular 
with  people  who  know  everything 

about  computers. 


Simple  connections.  PowerBook 
has  a  full  set  of  built-in  ports 
and  easy-to-use  communication 
software,  so  users  stay  connected 
wherever  they  go. 


PowerBook  has  also  built  a  large  following  among  the  world’s  most 
discriminating  computer  audience:  people  like  you,  whose  business  it 
is  to  know  computers  inside  and  out  and  who  make  the  hard  decisions 
about  their  companies’  information  systems. 

That’s  because,  unlike  other  notebooks,  PowerBook  is  more  than 
a  miniaturized  version  of  a  desktop  computer.  Its  award-winning  design 
acknowledges  that  there  is  a  fundamental  difference  between  the  way 
people  work  at  their  desks  and  the  way  they  work  outside  of  the  office. 


With  its  extraordinary  ease  of  use,  PowerBook  takes  client-server 
computing  to  a  new  level  of  simplicity  and  mobility.  From  any  distance, 
people  can  use  innovations  like  AppleTalk  Remote  Access  for  easy  and 
secure  access  to  the  office  network  resources.  And  because  PowerBook 
is  less  complicated  than  other  notebooks,  it  demands  far  less  support. 

For  all  these  reasons,  more  and  more  companies  are  depending  on 
PowerBook.  After  all,  you  don’t  have  to  be  an  expert  to  i  i 
recognize  this  kind  of  power.  The  power  to  be  your  best:  iuJulC  JSk 


PourrBook  Duo  ami  QuickTime  are  trademarks  of  Apple  Computer,  fnc.  MS-DOS  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Microsoft  Corporation.  SoftPC  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Insignia  SolutioJis  Inc.  This  ad  was  created  using  Macintosh  personal  computers. 


Fits  into  the  office.  The  optional 
PowerBook/DOS  Companion' package 
provides  software  and  connectors  to 
work  with  MS-DOS  files,  printers  and 
displays  you  already  oum. 


A  range  of  choices.  Four  models  with 
built-in  floppy  drives  offer  a  choice 
of  screens  (black-and-white,  grayscale 
or  color),  video-out  capability  and 
processor  speeds.  Ik’o  PowerBook  Duo' 
models  turn  into  expandable  desktop 
s)’stems  when  used  with  the  Duo  Dock. 


An  easy  decision.  PowerBook  is 
easier  for  a  company  to  set  up 
and  easier  for  people  to  use  —  so 
it’s  easier  to  support. 


Tailored  to  everyone.  PowerBook 
computers  are  the  affordable  way 
to  give  a  full-featured  notebook  to 
everyone  in  the  company  -  from 
the  sales  force  to  the  CEO. 


Advanced  Technology 


An  on-line  gold  mine? 

As  multimedia  quest  begins,  pioneers  scramble  to  see  which  technologies  pan  out 


By  Ellis  Booker 


ake  way  for  the  prospec¬ 
tors.  In  recent  months,  a 
caravan  of  computer,  ca¬ 
ble  television,  telephone 
and  software  companies 
have  set  off  on  a  gold  rush, 
announcing  products  and 
cross-industry  alliances 
aimed  at  delivering  multi- 
media  services  to  a  broad 
audience  of  subscribers. 
Like  the  original  gold  rush,  this 
movement,  too,  has  taken  on  a  life 
of  its  own,  leaving  the  prospectors 
drunk with  possibility  but  unmind¬ 
ful  of  precedent  or  nagging  weak¬ 
nesses  in  their  strategy 
“The  nature  of  capitalism  is  not 
to  spend  a  lot  of  money  under¬ 
standing  things. . . .  Rather,  you 


In  May . . . 


►  US  West  made  a  $2.5  bil¬ 
lion  investment  in  Time 
Warner,  Inc.’s  entertain¬ 
ment  business — the largest 
alliance  yet  between  a  regu¬ 
lated  local  telephone  compa¬ 
ny  and  a  cable  TV  operator. 
The  two  partners  plan  to  of¬ 
fer  interactive  entertain¬ 
ment  and  information  ser¬ 
vices  to  Time  Warner’s  7 
million  subscribers. 

►  Chicago-based  General 
Signal  Corp.,theworld’s 
largest  supplier  of  cable  and 
TV  equipment,  announced 
plans  to  integrate  Intel  Corp. 
and  Microsoft  Corp.  technol¬ 
ogies  into  its  next-genera¬ 
tion  addressable  cable  TV 
converters.  The  future  set¬ 
top  box,  which  will  feature 
Intel’s  32 -bit  chips  and  Gen¬ 
eral  Signal’s  digital  com¬ 
pression  and  graphics  cir¬ 
cuit  iy,  will  provide  con¬ 
ventional  cable  services  as 
well  as  interactive  multi- 
media. 

►  Tele-Communications, 
Inc.  (TCI),  the  nation’s  big¬ 
gest  cable  TV  operator,  an¬ 
nounced  plans  to  deploy  a  $2 
billion  fiber-based  nation¬ 
wide  network  by  1996.  Also, 
TCI.  along  with  Time  War¬ 
ner  and  Sega,  announced 
the  Sega  Channel,  which  will 
pilot  an  interactive  games 
channel  to  several  thousand 
homes  this  fall. 


throw  money  at  the  wall  and  see 
what  sticks,”  said  Charles  B. 
Kreitzberg,  president  of  Cognetics 
Corp.,  an  interactive  design  com¬ 
pany  in  Princeton  Junction,  N.J. 

“I  don’t  think  anybody  has  a  clue 
exactly  how  this  [market]  will  all 
shake  out,”  he  added. 

Asked  whether  the 
current  excitement 
around  on-line  multi- 
media  services  re¬ 
calls  the  (ultimately 
disappointing)  video¬ 
tex  craze  of  the  late 
1970s  and  ’80s,  some 
analysts  bristled. 

“The  technology  is 
far  more  powerful 
[per  constant  dollar], 
meaning  there  is  at 
least  the  technologi¬ 
cal  richness  neces¬ 
sary  for  a  successful 
user  experience,”  ex¬ 
plained  Mitch  Kapor, 
chairman  of  the 
Washington,  D.C.- 
based  Electronic 
Frontier  Foundation 
and  founder  of  Lotus 
Development  Corp. 

But  even  Kapor  ac¬ 
knowledged  that  it  is 
not  clear  what  ser¬ 
vices  and  applica¬ 
tions  will  drive  the 
market.  “At  this  point,  most  of  the 
players  are  actingon  faith,  not  cer¬ 
tainty,”  he  said. 

More  than  movies 

Kapor  and  Kreitzberg  agreed  that 
video-on-demand  will  be  an  impor¬ 
tant  beginning  application  —  al¬ 
though  picking  movies  “interac¬ 
tively”  is  not  generally  what  the 
proponents  of  on-line  multimedia 
tout  as  their  target  application. 

Kapor  was  also  adamant  that  fu¬ 
ture  “highly  interactive”  net¬ 
works  must  be  open,  in  both  their 


technical  design  and  their  operat¬ 
ing  policies,  if  they  are  to  achieve 
their  full  potential. 

“Users  and  third-party  develop¬ 
ers  should  be  able  to  determine  the 
content  and  purposes  of  the  net¬ 
work.  If  this  is  not  the  case,  then 


the  necessaiy  conditions  to  permit 
the  large-scale  innovation  will  not 
be  present,”  he  said. 

Whether  media  companies  are 
conceptually  prepared  to  allow 
this  fluid  definition  of  “content”  is 
a  serious  question,  according  to 
Douglas  Davis,  author  of  the  re¬ 
cently  published  book  The  Five 
Myths  of  Television  Power:  Or, 
Why  the  Medium  is  Not  the  Mes¬ 
sage  (Simon  &  Schuster,  Inc.,  $20). 

“The  market  and  viewers  are  far 
ahead  of  the  people  providing  the 
services,”  said  Davis,  who  added 


that  the  audience  for  the  interac¬ 
tive  services  will  be  “so  individu¬ 
ated  and  so  ‘hip’  that  you  can’t 
give  them  too  much  or  too  many 
choices.” 

These  services  will  flop,  Davis 
argued,  if  their  providers  “decide 
to  offer  multimedia 
on  some  kind  of  show 
biz  level.” 


Viewer  mistrust 

To  illustrate  how  his¬ 
torically  reluctant 
networks  have  been 
about  these  issues, 
Davis  cited  study  af¬ 
ter  study  indicating 
that  1)  viewers  prefer 
“unmediated”  news 
and  2)  viewers  hate 
and  mistrust  the  way 
programming  is 
aimed  at  them. 

“There’s  a  lot  of 
reason  to  take  a  jaun¬ 
diced  view,”  Davis 
concluded,  “not 
about  the  market  but 
about  the  people  who 
are  serving  it.” 

Kapor  was  a  bit 
more  charitable: 

z 

|  “The  ‘killer  apps’  of 
f  the  PC  era,  like  [LG¬ 
'S  tus’]  1-2-3,  emerged 
after  the  fact.  You 
need  a  period  of  experimentation 
by  garage  innovators  to  come  up 
with  the  one  killer  app  in  10,000  ef¬ 
forts.” 

Davis,  meanwhile,  is  optimistic 
that  within  five  years  —  “probably 
sooner”  —  it  will  be  commonplace 
to  watch  what  is  now  called  cable 
TV  via  a  computer.  The  computer 
will  become  the  repository  for  pro¬ 
grams  and  information,  organized 
and  presented  in  an  increasingly 
modular  fashion  so  that  users  can 
manipulate  them  to  suit  their 
needs. 


They  want  their  MTV 

Consumer  demand  for  new  forms 
of  entertainment ,  more  than  any 
other  factor,  is  fuelingthe  evolu¬ 
tion  of  North  America’s  two  funda¬ 
mental  networks:  telephone  and 
television. 

“Both  fundamental  networks 
will  handle  two-way,  switched 
wideband  traffic  well  before  the 
year  2000,”  The  Insight  Research 
Corp.  in  Livingston,  N.J.,  projected 
in  its  latest  report. 


But  Insight’s  analysis  also  ar¬ 
gued  that  the  two  networks  will  op¬ 
erate  separately  through  the  year 
2000,  creating  “an  extensive  level 
of  overlapping,  interconnecting 
and  competing  capabilities.” 

While  phone  companies  will  be¬ 
gin  to  provide  some  TV  distribu¬ 
tion,  and  cable  TV  operators  may 
provide  access  to  the  switched 
phone  network,  Insight  said  it 
does  not  believe  the  two  camps  will 
fully  compete  with  each  other. 

‘  ‘We  believe  the  two  networks 
will  compete  to  some  degree,  but 


not  across  all  services,”  said  Mi¬ 
chael  French,  vice  president  at  In¬ 
sight.  “The  majority  of  their  ser¬ 
vices  will  be  unique.”  He  said  this 
separation  hinges  on  technical 
matters  and  on  “the  massive  infra¬ 
structure  investments  that  have 
taken  decades  to  put  into  place.” 

In  addition,  French  said,  cur¬ 
rent  regulatory  thinkingencour- 
ages  competition  amongphone 
and  cable  TV  service  providers, 
even  if  a  confluence  of  networks 
becomes  tech  nically  feasible. 

— Ell  is  Booker 


28  Computerworid  May  31, 1993 


Diagnosis:  Acute  Demanditis 


u 


Flanders!. . .  do  more 
with  our  equipment. . . 
watch  your  costs. . . 
don't  sacrifice  quality. . . 
and  make  us  competitive!!! 


Listen,  Ed... what 
about  object-oriented 
..and  client/server??? 

. .  .we  need  applications  noiv 

99 

. . .  and  make  'em  easy  to  use!!! 


Cure:  SAPIENS 


Addressing  the  demands  of  corporate  managers, 
application  users  and  everyone  in  between  can  be  over¬ 
whelming.  Unless  you  have  SAPIENS!"' 

Available  from  IBM!  SAPIENS’  innovative  rapid 
application  development  software  builds  sophisticated 
applications  faster.  And  it  slashes  the  time  you  spend 
updating  those  applications. 

SAPIENS  also  protects  your  mainframe  invest¬ 
ment  with  object-oriented  technology  that’s  database- 
independent  and  portable  across  MVS®  VM  and  VSE" 

“  IBM  -•  AD/Cycle 


environments.  SAPIENS  even  offers  a  client/server 
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powerful  enterprise  server. 

All  of  which  means  increased  productivity 
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A  critical  edge  for  corporate  managers.  And  peace 
of  mind  for  you. 

Get  the  cure  with  SAPIENS  products  and  services 
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DEVELOPMENT 


IBM  has  exclusive  marketing  rights  to  SAPIENS  in  the  United  States.  IBM,  MVS.  VM  and  VSE  are  registered  trademarks  of  International  Business  Machines  Corporation.  SAPIENS  is  a  trademark  of  Sapiens  International  Corporation  N  V. 


IF  YOU’RE  LOOKING  FOR  FLEXIBILITY  IN  BRANCH  NETWORKING,  TAKE  A  LOOK 
AT  MOTOROLA  CODEX’S  6500PLUB  SERIES.  THIS  SOFTWARE-DEFINED 
COMMUNICATIONS  PLATFORM  LETS  YOU  SAFELY  SEND  LAN  AND  SERIAL  DATA, 
LIKE  SNA,  OVER  THE  SAME  LINES.  FOR  LAN-WAN  INTERNETWORKING,  THERE’S 
NO  BETTER  CHOICE.  BUT  THAT’S  NOT  THE  ONLY  REASON  TO  CHOOSE  IT. 


Corporate  brand  names  are  the  properties  of  the  listed  compan.es  ©  1993  Motorola  Codex  Inc  Motorola  M  Codex  are  trademarks  of  Motorola  Inc 


THE  BEST  REASON  IS  THE  6500PLUS  SERIES  AND  ALL  M DTE) RE) LA  CDDEX  PRODUCTS  DON’T 


JUST  WORK  ALONE.  THEY  ALL  WORK  TOGETHER  AS  PART  OF 
AN  INTEGRATED  NETWORK.  AND  WHEN  THEY  DO,  THERE’S  NO 
NETWORK  THAT  WORKS  BETTER.  FIND  OUT  HOW  WE  CAN  PUT 
IT  ALL  TOGETHER  FOR  YOU.  CALL  1  -  BOO-426-1  2  1  2  EXT.  310. 


MOTOROLA 

codex 


Viewpoint 


Doing  lunch 

What’s  wrong' with  this  picture? 

Last  week  at  the  giant  Comdex 
technology  extravaganza,  I  entered 
the  usual  mobbed  lunch  area  and 
asked  a  stranger  if  he’d  mind  shar¬ 
ing  his  table  with  me.  We  soon  start¬ 
ed  chatting,  and  I  discovered  he  was 
on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma. 

He  works  at  the  IRS,  and  his  group  was  six  months 
into  prototypinga  customer  sendee  application.  They 
were  workingwith  three  almo  st-identical  customer 
sites,  using  high-speed  modems  to  dial  into  the  sites 
and  download  data  to  the  IRS  systems.  Pretty  simple. 

The  problem  was  that  at  one  of  the  sites,  the  modem 
would  sometimes  dial  three,  four,  five  or  more  times 
before  getting  a  connection.  There  were  no  such  prob¬ 
lems  at  the  other  sites.  They  checked  out  the  lines 
(OK)  and  checked  out  the  mo¬ 
dems  (OK).  They  thought  the 
problem  might  be  in  the  data 
encryption  software.  But  if  so, 
why  did  things  work  with  two 
sites  and  not  with  the  third? 

In  all,  a  pretty  vexingyet 
very  pedestrian  problem.  So  he 
came  to  Atlanta  for  some  help. 

After  all,  some  l.OOOvendors 
were  there  displaying  some  of 
the  fanciest  state-of-the-art  in¬ 
formation  technology  ever  created,  such  as  Pentium- 
based  computers  and  Windows  NT.  Some  of  the  tech¬ 
nology  was  actually  shipping. 

For  all  his  searching  on  the  Comdex  floor — amid 
the  show  barkers,  the  latest  in  multimedia,  the  ven¬ 
dors  claimingtheir  machines  and  software  support 
vaporware  operatingsystems,  the  50-MHzPC  scream¬ 
ers  —  he  couldn’t  find  anyone  to  help  him  out.  It  was 
just  too  ordinary  a  problem  to  which  to  apply  such 
wonderful  technology. 

That’s  what’s  wrongwith  this  picture. 

?*.'  ?*.  ii' t*.'  i* 


All  of  a  sudden  and  almost  in  unison,  some  of  the  lead- 
ingPC  application  vendors  are  hittingtheir  stride  in 
successfully  porting  their  applications  to  Windows  af¬ 
ter  some  halting  starts. 

If  you’ll  recall,  vendors  such  as  Lotus  and  WordPer¬ 
fect  cried  foul  when  Microsoft  announced  a  fewyears 
ago  that  it  was  switching  development  efforts  from 
OS/2  to  Windows.  Shortly  thereafter,  Microsoft  sport¬ 
ed  Windows  versions  of  key  applications  such  as  word 
processingand  spreadsheets  and  promptly  sucked 
up  the  market  for  Windows  apps.  Competitors  com¬ 
plained  that  Microsoft  application  teams  were  privy 
to  information  from  the  operating  system  side  of  the 
company — information  not  shared  the  same  way 
with  other  companies. 

The  claim  was  never  proved.  But  it’s  worth  noting 
that  the  likes  of  Borland,  Lotus  and  WordPerfect — 
the  leading  application  companies  in  the  MS-DOS 
world  —  have  now  hit  the  streets  with  sound  Windows 
offerings,  and  all  around  the  same  time  frame.  Just  a 
coincidence,  or  did  they  actually  have  the  same  dis¬ 
advantages  to  overcome? 

dxjLp 

Bill  Laberis,  Editor  in  chief 


OPTAIU!  I'm  PICKING  UP  AN 
unipentified  TAPPING  NOISE 

Coming  from  the  fuselage. 
AND  IT'S  GETTING  LOUDER// 


wfm  THIS  YOUR  FIRST  TIME. 
DOlNGACOMCa 
V  RETURN  FLIGHT,  SON? 

. _ ^ 


■  /T 

tnuna  ' ' 

7uUfc, 


LAPTOP  £XPRESSm0 


S/S'/f, 


HARTSF1ELD  ATLANTA 
INTERNATIONAL  AIRPORT 


i||||||§|| 


Word  wealth 

Regarding  “Utility  powers  up  text 
retrieval”  [CW,  April  26]:  If  these 
expenditures  are  correctly  quot¬ 
ed,  then  nuclear  generation  can¬ 
not  be  economically  viable.  As  a 
certified  data  processing  profes¬ 
sional,  I  am  astounded  by  such  a 
large  budget  for  word  processing. 

The  software  that  models  and 
runs  the  Ciystal  River  Unit  3  facil¬ 
ity  did  not  cost  that  much  and  re¬ 
quires  far  fewer  resources  to  oper¬ 
ate.  Nancy  Smith  is  processing 
words  when  she  speaks  of  preemp¬ 
tive  multitasking. 

Christopher  J.  Clement 
Palm  Harbor,  Fla. 

Skip  the  Clipper 

The  article  on  the  Clipper  encryp¬ 
tion  chip  [“Fed  encryption  plan 
gets  mixed  reaction,”  CW,  May  10] 
was  a  good  summary  of  the  cur¬ 
rent  debate.  However,  the  govern¬ 
ment  should  not  be  in  the  business 
of  marketing  chips.  This  goes  dou¬ 
ble  when  the  chip  is  vital  to  privacy 
of  information  and  triple  when  the 
government  is  seeking  a  monopoly 
position  in  the  market. 

Also,  at  least  one  aspect  of  the 
Clipper’s  security  is  very  weak:  A 
single  code  is  used  to  extract  the 
serial  number  from  any  Clipper 
chip.  If  this  code  is  leaked  or 
cracked,  the  first  layer  of  security 
is  permanently  gone  for  Clippers. 

The  Clipper  is  simply  the  latest 
in  a  long  series  of  governmental 
assaults  on  our  privacy  and  liber¬ 
ties.  We  should  not  be  taken  in. 

Gary  D.McGath 
Penacook,  N.H. 

For  more  on  Clipper,  see  next  page. 


E-mail  trail 

“Coping  with  the  deluge”  [CW, 
May  17]  is  somewhat  perplexing. 
Here  we’re  in  the  “electronic  age” 
and  we’re  complaining  about  lack 
of  disk  space?  I  never  remember 
hearing  about  the  lack  of  file  cabi¬ 
net  space  when  we  were  all  send¬ 
ing  paper  memos  to  one  another. 

It  seems  a  tad  ironic  that  after 
we  wean  users  from  paper  and  get 
them  to  use  electronic  messaging, 
we  start  complaining  that  they  are 
using  it  too  much.  This  is  not  an 
electronic-mail  problem;  this  is  a 
communication  problem. 

If  someone  keeps  sending  me 
useless  memos,  I  do  one  of  two 
things:  I  either  ignore  and  throw 
out  everything  from  that  person, 
or  I  gently  tell  him  to  be  somewhat 
more  particular  about  what  is  rea¬ 
sonable  to  send  to  me. 

Let’s  not  penalize  people  for  do¬ 
ing  exactly  what  we  want  them  to 
do:  to  fully  embrace  the  new  tech¬ 
nology  and  use  it  to  the  hilt. 

Pete  Roberts 
Corte  Madera,  Calif. 

Payback  time 

David  Kelly’s  description  of  what 
constitutes  valuable  work  and 
drudgery  [“This  is  freedom  from 
drudgery?”  CW,  May  17]  shows 
that  he’s  gotten  the  bone-numbing 
computer  hell  he  deserves. 

The  notion  that  chopping  fire¬ 
wood,  drawing  water  and  produc¬ 
ing  food  is  beneath  us  created  the 
demand  for  “labor-saving”  de¬ 
vices  such  as  computers  in  the 
first  place.  Now  we  figure  out  that 
the  “information”  Dave’s  comput¬ 
er  (and  yours  and  mine)  “gener¬ 
ates”  creates  tons  of  monotonous 


grunt  work  and  further  alienates 
us  from  one  another.  In  the  mean¬ 
time,  Dave  whines  that  he  can’t  ap¬ 
proach  the  weird  altar  of  “creative 
thought”  because  he’s  too  busy 
consulting  on,  of  all  things,  client/ 
server  and  systems  integration! 

Take  a  break,  Dave.  Go  split 
some  wood. 

T.  J.  Smith 
Spokane,  Wash. 


Page  2  blues 

1  wholeheartedly  agree  with  Mi¬ 
chael  Somand  [Letters  to  the 
editor,  May  3].  Last  year’s  Page 

2  of  Computerworld  was  the 
perfect  “executive  summary” 
of  this  journal,  and  today’s  ver¬ 
sion  is  almost  as  useful  as  a 
deck  of  Hollerith  cards. 

I  peruse  at  least  20  industry 
publications  a  month  and,  al¬ 
though  I  usually  prefer  to  turn 
every  page  of  Computerworld, 
returning  to  the  office  after  a 
one-  or  two-week  absence 
presents  me  with  a  reading 
backlog  that  the  old  Page  2 
greatly  relieved. 

Bring  back  the  old  Page  2! 

Dccve  Schwee 
Sugar  Land,  Texas 

Ed:  We  will  — soon. 


■  Computerworld  welcomes  comments 

FROM  ITS  READERS.  LETTERS  MAY  BE  EDITED 
FOR  BREVITYAND  CLARITY  AND  SHOULD  BE 
ADDRESSED  TO  BILL  LABERIS,  EDITOR  IN 
Chief,  Computerworld,  P.0.  Box  9171, 
375  Cochituate  Road,  Framingham, 
Mass.  01701.  Fax  number:  (508)  875- 
8931;  MCI  Mail:  COMPUTERWORLD. 
Please  include  a  phone  number  for 

VERIFICATION. 


32 


Computerworld  May  31, 1993 


INFOSTRUCTURE 


in  •  f o  •  s  true  •  tur  e  V  in-  ( ( )  f o-\s  tr  ak-  cher  \n 

[The  information  infrastructure] 

1.  What  the 
Computerworld 
reader  runs. 


For  your  free  button, 

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Introducing  WordPerfect  Office  4.0. 


You  know  how  companies 
operate.  Large  or  small, 
local  or  global,  they  operate 
on  meetings.  Memos.  Dead¬ 
lines.  And  paperwork, 
paperwork,  paperwork. 

If  you’ve  ever  had  to 
make  ten  calls  to  get  four  people  in  the  same  room  at 
the  same  time,  or  wait  three  days  for  a  purchase  order 
from  the  eighth  floor,  you  know  how  well  the  system 
usually  works. 


but  meetings,  appointments,  tasks  and  paperwork  —  all 
the  basic,  relentless  stuff  of  business.  It  automates  the 
flow  of  work  and  information  through  (and  throughout) 
your  company. 

WordPerfect  Office  is  the  first  comprehensive 
calendaring, 
scheduling  and 
task  management 
program  to  be 
integrated  with 
a  best-of-breed 


filed,  where  it’s  routed  after  it  leaves  your  desk.  You  can 
accept  or  reject  meeting  requests,  of  course,  but  you  can 
also  delegate  them.  You  or  your  proxy  can  check  for 
conflicts  on  any  number  of  personal  calendars  across  any 
number  of  networks  —  even  across  dissimilar  computer 
operating  systems  —  with  a  single  keystroke. 

Your  incoming  mail  can  be  automatically  sorted 
and  forwarded  to  the  appropriate  people  when  you're  out 

of  town,  or  you  can 
handle  it  yourself 
from  your  laptop. 
And  WordPerfect 
Office  features  the 
only  electronic  Out 


Simplified  administration  across  platforms. 

To  bring  the  unique  benefits  of  the  corporate  operating 
system  to  as  many  companies  as  possible,  we  developed 
WordPerfect  Office  for  LANs  of  as  few  as  five  users  and 
WANs  of  as  many  as  100,000.  And  as  you’d  expect  from 
any  WordPerfect  product,  it’s  a  highly  capable  cross-plat- 
form  package,  supporting  communications  on  Windows, 
DOS,  Macintosh,  UNIX,  OS/2  and  VAX/VMS. 

For  connections  to  existing  e-mail  systems  and 
communication  between  dissimilar  systems,  WordPerfect 
offers  a  long  list  of  gateways,  including  Novell  MHS, 
IBM  PROFS  and  Office Vision/VM,  SNADS,  X.400,  SMTP, 
MCI  Mail,  AT&T  EasyLink  and  FAX.  Perhaps  most 


111 


Schedule 


Forms 


But  now  there’s  a  new  system  —  a  single,  cross-platform 
workgroup  application  that  can  handle  all  your  internal 

business  operations 
and  communications 
electronically.  It's 
WordPerfect®  Office1'' 
4.0,  the  first  “oper¬ 
ating  system”  for 
companies. 

E-mail  isn’t  enough  anymore. 

Organizations  still  driven  by  the  telephone 
and  the  mail  cart  may  see  e-mail  as  the  next 
logical  step.  But  WordPerfect  has  now 
advanced  the  technology  of  e-mail  to 
a  higher  level.  WordPerfect  Office 
“mail  enables”  not  just  messages, 


e-mail  engine.  There’s  nothing  else  like  it  available 
today,  and  perhaps  surprisingly,  it’s  available  for  the  cost 
of  e-mail  alone. 

You  make  the  rules. 

WordPerfect  Office  works  the  way  your  office  works. 
You  control  how  information  reaches  you,  where  it’s 


importantly,  the 
program  supports  full  directory  services  to  greatly  simpli¬ 
fy  the  sharing  of  names  between  systems.  And  we  offer 
diagnostic  and  management  services  to  make  configuring, 
monitoring  and  maintaining  your  system  easier. 

A  new  standard  in  electronic  messaging. 

By  integrating  e-mail,  calendaring,  scheduling,  task  man¬ 
agement  and  workflow  management  into  a  single,  power¬ 
ful  workgroup  application,  WordPerfect  Office  has  raised 
the  industry  standard.  But  because  it’s  as  easy  to  learn  as 
the  e-mail  you  may  be  using  now,  it  can  greatly  increase 
user  productivity  with  little  additional  training. 

Before  you  buy  or  upgrade  any  e-mail  system,  you 
have  to  see  what  the  first  corporate  operating  system  can 
do.  To  arrange  for  a  demonstration  or  free  evaluation  of 
WordPerfect  Office  4.0,  call  us  at  (800)  526-5064. 

WORDPERFECT  IS  A  REGISTERED  TRADEMARK  AND  W0R0F 
AND  OTHER  COUNTRIES  ALL  OTHER  BRAND  AND  PR00UC 
©  WORDPERFECT  CORPORATION  1993  *  FOR  A  LIMITED  TIH 


Box  in  the  industry,  so  you  can  check  the  status  of  any 
message  or  project  at  a  glance  (as  well  as  retract  and 
rethink  any  unopened  messages). 

Even  forms  can  be  routed  electronically. 

WordPerfect  InFormsT  an  electronic  forms  package 
included  with  -WordPerfect  Office,*  can  take  most  of  the 


WINDOWS 


work  —  and  all  of  the  paper  —  out  of  routine  office  paper¬ 
work.  Now  you  can  sign  off  on  timesheets,  invoices  and 
other  business  forms  electronically  and  send  them  up  the 
line  for  approval,  or  distribute  them  anywhere  in  your 
organization  instantly  (including  to  virtually  any  desktop 
or  SQL  database). 


Introducing  some  of  the  first  vars  certified  in  WordPerfect  Office  4.0. 


Applied  Computer  Technology 

The  Asset  Group 

Automation  Partners 
International,  Inc. 

Barrister  Information  Systems 

Data  Systems  Network 


DCT  Systems 
Evernet  Systems,  Inc. 

The  Future  Now 
LANSystems,  Inc. 

Syntrex  Technologies,  Inc. 
USConnect,  Inc. 


For  the  number  of  the  Certified  Perfect  Partner  nearest  you  call  (800)  526-5176. 


Viewpoint 


COMPUTERWORLD 


Editor  in  Chief 

Bill  Laberis 

Executive  Editor 

Paul  Gillin 


News  Editor 

Alan  Alper 

Technical  Sections  Editor 

James  Connolly 

Assistant  News  Editor 

Patricia  Keefe 
Technical  Editor 
Charles  Babcock 
Senior  Editors 
Elisabeth  Horwitt 
Networking 
Rosemary  Cafasso 
Corporate  Strategies 
NellMargolis 
Management 
JoanieM.Wexler 
Networking 
Johanna  Ambrosio 
Systems  &  Software 
Garry  N.  Ray 

Application  Development 
Ellis  Booker 
Advanced  Technology 
Michael  Vizard 
Personal  Computing 
Senior  Writers 
Michael  Fitzgerald 
Melinda  Carol  Ballou 
Staff  Writers 
Lynda  Radosevich 
Stephen  P.  Klettjr. 

New  Products  Writer 
Lisa  Davidson 

Features  Editor 
Joanne  Kelleher 
Senior  Editors 

Joseph  Maglitta,  Management 
Lory  Zottola  Dix,  In  Depth 
Mary  Brandel,  CW  Guide 
Joyce  Chutchian-Ferranti,  Integration 
Strategies 
Associate  Editors 
Carol  Hildebrand,  Management 
Jodie  Naze,  Marketplace  and  Careers 
Assistant  Editor 
Derek  Slater 
Assistant  Researcher 
Stefanie  McCann,  CW  Guide 
Intern 

Erin  Callaway 


Research  Manager 

Michael  L.  Sullivan-Trainor 

Research  Coordinator 

Kevin  Burden 


Chief  Copy  Editor 
Catherine  Gagnon 
Assistant  Chief  Copy  Editor 
AnneMcCrory 
Features  Copy  Editors 
Kimberlee  A.  Smith 
Steven  J.  Condon 
Copy  Editors 
Alice  Lesch  Kelly 
Christina  Aicardi  Maguire 
JillZolot 
Ellen  Fanning 
Design  Director 
Nancy  Kowal 
Graphic  Designer 
Tom  Monahan 
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Janell  Genovese 
Graphics  Specialists 
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Stephanie  Faucher 
Cartoonist 
Rich  Tennant 


Office  Manager 

Linda  Gorgone 
Editorial  Assistants 
Lorraine  Witzell 
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Aleksandra  Skulte 
Rights  and  Permissions  Manager 
Sharon  Bryant 


Computerworld's  Client/Server  Journal 

Maryfran  Johnson,  Editor 


News  Bureaus 
Mid-Atlantic 

Thomas  Hoffman,  Correspondent 

(201) 967-1350 

Washington,  D.C. 

Mitch  Betts,  National  Correspondent 

(202)  347-6718 

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(202)347-0134 
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(415)347-0555 
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(801)  328-2425 

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frog  827-4433 

Main  Editorial  Office 

Box  9171, 375  Cochituate  Road 
Framingham,  Mass.  01701-9171 
(508)  879-0700 
MCI  Mail:  279-6273 
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Subscriptions:  (800)  669-1002 


Clipper  gives  Big  Brother  far  too  much  power 


In  April,  the  Clinton  administration, 
cleaning  up  business  left  over  from  the 
Bush  administration,  introduced  a  cryp¬ 
tography  initiative  that  gives  govern¬ 
ment  the  ability  to  conduct  electronic 
surveillance.  The  first  fruit  of  this  initia¬ 
tive  is  Clipper,  a  National  Security  Agen¬ 
cy  (NSA)-designed,  tamper-resistant  VLSI 
chip.  The  stated  purpose  of  this  chip  is  to  se¬ 
cure  telecommunications. 

Clipper  uses  a  classified  encryption  algo¬ 
rithm.  Each  Clipper  chip  has  a  special  key,  not 
needed  for  messages,  that  is  used  only  to  en¬ 
crypt  a  copy  of  each  user’s  message  key.  Any¬ 
one  who  knows  the  key  can  decrypt  wire¬ 
tapped  communications  protected  with  this 
chip.  The  claim  is  that  only  the  government  will 
know  this  key  and  will  use  it  only  when  autho¬ 
rized  to  do  so  by  a  court. 

There  are  numerous  problems  with  Clipper: 
cryptographic  problems,  design  problems,  pol¬ 
icy  problems  and  philosophy  problems. 

Classifying  the  encryption  algorithm  is 
wrong.  The  NSA’s  refusal  to  allow  public  scru¬ 
tiny  of  the  algorithm  gives  ammunition  to  those 
who  believe  there  is  a  secret  “back  door”  that 
will  permit  the  NSA  to  decrypt  messages  at 
will.  The  only  way  to  assuage  these  fears  is  to 
allow  academic  cryptographers  to  examine 
the  algorithm  and  publish  their  findings. 

Clipper  is  also  based  on  the  Orwellian  as¬ 
sumption  that  the  government  has  a  right  to 
listen  to  private  communications.  It  promotes 


Bruce  Schneier 


the  power  of  government  over  the  power  of  the 
individual.  It  assumes  that  the  government  is 
the  good  guy  and  private  citizens  are  bad  guys. 

Why  is  the  government  now  claiming  there 
is  something  wrong  with  a  private  citizen  try¬ 
ing  to  keep  a  secret  from  the  government?  This 
is  not  simply  a  little  proposal  of  the  govern¬ 
ment  in  some  obscure  area;  it  is  a  preemptive 
and  unilateral  attempt  to  usurp  powers  that 
previously  belonged  to  the  people.  It  also  rep¬ 
resents  a  fundamental  shift  in  government  pol¬ 
icy,  from  a  passive  role  of  listening  to  an  active 
role  of  regulating  new  technologies. 

Clipper  forces  individuals  to  unconditional¬ 
ly  trust  that  the  government  will  respect  our 


privacy.  But  consider  this:  The  same  law  en¬ 
forcement  authorities  that  illegally  tapped 
Martin  Luther  King  Jr.’s  phones  can  easily  tap 
aphone  protected  with  Clipper.  Duringthe  past 
five  years,  local  police  authorities  have  been 
charged  criminally  or  sued  civilly  in  numerous 
jurisdictions  for  conducting  illegal  wiretaps. 

As  long  as  Clipper  is  optional,  people  who  de¬ 
sire  real  privacy  (both  honest  citizens  and 
criminals)  will  use  other  encryption  methods. 
However,  because  these  methods  will  be  se¬ 
cure  from  wiretapping,  I  expect  the  federal 
government  to  introduce  legislation  banning 
nonescrowed  encryption  and  to  reintroduce 
legislation  forcing  telephone-switch  manufac¬ 
turers  to  add  circuitry  to  allowwiretapping. 

By  mandating  a  solution  before  allowing 
public  discussion,  the  administration  is  over¬ 
looking  some  very  important  questions:  How 
effective  are  wiretaps  in  law  enforcement? 

Why  would  any  intelligent 
criminal  use  flawed  en¬ 
cryption  such  as  Clipper? 

And,  most  importantly, 
is  the  ability  to  conduct 
wiretaps  more  important 
than  the  right  to  personal 
privacy? 


Schneier  is  president  of  Counterpane  Systems,  a  cryp¬ 
tography  consulting  firm  in  Oak  Park,  Ill.  His  book,  Ap¬ 
plied  Cryptography ,  will  be  published  by  John  Wiley 
&  Sons  in  November. 


PIAs:  Agents  of  wireless  anarchy 


Havingjust  chaired  a  session  at  Com¬ 
dex  on  the  future  of  personal  infor¬ 
mation  appliances,  or  PIAs — things 
like  the  Sharp  Wizard,  the  Hewlett- 
Packard  95LX  palmtop  and  the  Ap¬ 
ple  Newton  —  I  can  vouch  for  the  ex¬ 
citement  building  in  the  industry  for 
the  concept  of  PIAs.  Vendors  are  forming  divi¬ 
sions  around  the  concept.  Wire¬ 
less  carriers  are  drooling  at  the 
thought  of  delivering  signals  to 
all  these  Dick  Tracy  devices.  And 
storage  vendors  are  trying  to  fig¬ 
ure  out  how  many  megabytes 
they  can  get  on  a  button-size  disk. 

That’s  what  I  can  vouch  for. 

What  I  can’t  vouch  for  is  the  abili¬ 
ty  of  user  firms  to  do  anything 
constructive  with  these  gizmos. 

I  think  the  market  is  inevitable — individuals 
will  line  up  to  buy,  even  if  companies  won’t.  But 
as  you  very  well  know,  IS  organizations  are  ill- 
equipped  to  deal  with  mobile  computingin  gen¬ 
eral,  let  alone  wireless,  handheld  mobile  com¬ 
puting. 

These  devices  will  enter  your  organizations 
like  a  swarm  of  gnats.  The  installed  base  for 
palmtops  alone  is  already  more  than  4  million 
worldwide,  and  International  Data  Corp.  is 
forecasting  growth  to  15  million  in  1997.  Add 


fire  watch  by  John Gantz 

other  PIA  devices  and  you  easily  double  that 
forecast. 

Yikes!  Just  as  the  influx  of  PCs  confounded 
IS  managers  in  the  early  1980s,  PIAs  will  con¬ 
found  those  of  you  managing  systems  and 
LANs  in  the  1990s.  We’re  talkingmillions  of  ad¬ 
dressable  units  demanding  ad  hoc,  real-time 
access  over  shifting  communications  net¬ 
works  to  corporate  databases. 
We’re  also  talking  about  address¬ 
able  units  consisting  of  propri¬ 
etary  hardware  and  software  (nec¬ 
essary  to  get  to  wrist-watch  size) 
and,  therefore,  built-in  interoper¬ 
ability  problems. 

I  expect  the  market  to  develop  in 
the  time-honored  fashion.  Vendors 
will  offer  proprietary  products 
and  fight  for  market  share  in 
hopes  of  becoming  de  facto  standards.  Users 
will  deciy  the  lack  of  standards  but  buy  only 
for  specific  applications  or  functions  because 
that’s  the  only  way  to  justify  purchases  in  the 
short  term.  In  about  the  third  or  fourth  genera¬ 
tion  of  devices,  the  need  for  application  inte¬ 
gration  will  push  standards  and  interoperabil¬ 
ity  —  long  after  it’s  too  late  to  build  them  into 
products  in  a  rational  way. 

Once  again,  you’ll  be  left  holding  the  bag. 
Sales  forces  automated  with  one  kind  of  PL4 


will  want  to  communicate  with  service  engi¬ 
neers  automated  with  another.  Everyone  will 
want  to  hook  into  the  corporate  E-mail  net¬ 
work,  which  wasn’t  designed  to  support  re¬ 
mote,  wireless  access. 

You’ll  handle  network  incompatibilities  with 
gateways,  but  before  long,  your  gateways  will 
have  gateways.  Device  inventories,  security 
and  software  licenses  will  be  nearly  impossi¬ 
ble  to  control.  Network  management  will  be  a 
joke.  There’ll  be  an  element  of  humor  in  appli¬ 
cation  development,  too. 

And  don’t  expect  any  help  from  the  vendors 
in  managing  unruly  fleets  of  PIAs.  They’re  too 
busy  trying  to  keep  venture  capital  or  corpo¬ 
rate  development  money  flowing  into  their  re¬ 
search  and  development  sinkholes  and  getting 
products  out  to  think 
about  the  problems  you’ll 
face  supporting  remote, 
mobile,  wireless  workers, 
devices  and  software. 

So,  for  every  ounce  of 
PIAs  you  buy,  order  a  simi¬ 
lar  amount  of  Turns. 


Gantz  is  senior  vice  president  at  International  Data 
Corp.,  where  he  is  responsible  for  all  research  and  con¬ 
sulting  in  desktop  automation  and  workgroup  and  of¬ 
fice  computing. 


Don’t  expect  any 
help  from 
vendors  in 
managing 
unruly  fleets  of 
PIAs.  They’re 
too  busy  getting 
products  out. 


COMPUTERWORLD  May  31,  1993  33 


If  we  told  you  NetWare 

networking  advancement 


You  seem  skeptical. 


What  if  you  could  double  the  storage 


What  if  you  could  manage  the  whole 


capacity  of  your  server? 


network  from  a  single  location? 


Here’s  the  promise:  NetWare  4.0  will  truly  revolutionize  network 
computing  by  turning  a  multi-server  environment  into  a  single  system. 
Users  and  administrators  log  into  one  unified  system  from  any  DOS, 


Multiple  Server  Environment  +  =  °ne  Unified  System  MaC,  WilldOWS,  UNIX, 

All  Novell  products  work  together.  So  your  NetWare  network  is  a  platform 
to  build  on  for  years  to  come.  That's  why,  now  more  than  ever,  NetWare  is  networking.  01  OS/  2  COmpt-ltCI  Oil 


the  network  to  access  information  or  manage  network-wide  resources. 

Network  administrators  can  exert  greater  control  over  network 
security  issues  through  new  authentication  and  auditing  procedures. 


What  if  it  made  your  network  What  if  you  could  access  information  across  What  if  your  multiple  servers 

more  secure  than  Ft. Knox?  your  wide-area  network  twice  as  fast?  worked  like  a  single  unified  system? 


To  ease  the  migration  to  4.0,  built-in  tools  automatically  transfer 
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The  fileserver  on  the  right  was  recently  tested 
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and  two  SCSI-2  channels  on  the  controller.  And  the 
more  drives  you  add,  the  better  the  throughput. 


to  get  you  up  and  ninning.  We  even  offer  an  optional 
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with  IDA-2  managed  a  173  overall 
score,  the  Dell1  4066/XE  DSA 
SCSI-2  scored  an  unbelievable  413. 

Over  twice  the  throughput. 

Frankly,  we  were  surprised 
we  didn’t  come  out  even  faster. 
Considering  that  we  had  a  rather 
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The  DSA,  tor  short. 

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Tested  system  included  an  additional 
3  Eagle  cards  for  an  extra  $2,325. 


But  the  Dell  4066/XE  DSA  server 
isn’t  merely  fast;  it  has  the  storage 
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that  speed. 

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the  way  up  to  a  phenomenal  56GB. 

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IDA-2  drive  array,  by  comparison, 
can  support  up  to  a  paltry  3.06GB. 

But  all  this  talk  about  expansion 
and  speed  hardly  matters  in  the  event 


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your  server  goes  down. 

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1  esting  independently  audited  by  Bounds,  Chute  lain  and  Pharr.  For  detailed  test  results  call  TecKFaxiM  at  1-800-950-1 329.  * Prices  valid  in  U.S.  only.  Some  products  and  promotions  not  available  in  Canada  or  Mexico  Leasing  arranged  by 
l -easing  ku  up.  Inc  'On-sae  service  provided  by  BancTec  Service  Corporation.  Optional  4-htmr  service  available  m  17  major  metropolitan  areas.  On-site  service  may  not  be  available  m  certain  remote  areas.  The  Intel  Inside  logo  is  a  registered  trademark  and 
and  i960  arc  trademarks  of  Intel  (  lorfxtraaon.  Novell  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Novell,  Inc.  Dell  disclaims  proprietary  interest  m  the  marks  and  names  of  others.  ©1993  Dell  Computer  Corporation.  All  rights  reserved. 


News 


Charles  Babcock 


Deferred 
payback 

A  first  venture  into 
client/server  doesn’t 
necessarily  save 
money  over  a  host- 
based  system;  in  fact, 
it  may  cost  more. 

That  at  least  is  the 
conclusion  of  For¬ 
rester  Research,  a 
consultancy  in  Cam¬ 
bridge,  Mass.,  that  asked  25  large  com¬ 
panies  about  their  initial  client/server  in¬ 
vestment. 

Because  each  company  was  doing 
something  different,  Forrester  staffers 
drew  up  a  composite  of  the  client/server 
systems  they  found  —  a  system  with  five 
Novell  NetWare  servers  and  140 1486  PCs. 
Then,  for  comparison,  they  mapped  an 
equivalent  Application  System/400  host- 
based  system  with  the  same  number  of 
dumb  terminals  and  PCs. 

Researchers  went  to  appropriate  ven¬ 
dors  and  asked  for  standard  prices  to 
come  up  with  hardware/software/net¬ 
work  expenses.  Conclusion:  Implement¬ 
ing  an  application  on  a  new  PC  LAN  cli¬ 
ent/server  system  will  cost  slightly  more 
than  buildingfrom  scratch  on  an  AS/400. 

Customer  service  trial 

The  typical  application  served  by  both  of 
Forrester’s  model  configurations  was  a 
customer  service  system  meant  to  put 
better  information  into  the  hands  of  em¬ 
ployees  fieldingcustomers’  calls.  This 
choice  was  not  random.  Half  of  those  in¬ 
terviewed  said  they  had  picked  customer 
service  for  their  first  client/server  effort, 
citingreasons  such  as  an  ability  to  install 
call-recognition  systems  that  route  call¬ 
ers  to  familiar  service  personnel,  easier 
retrieval  of  account  data  and  immediate 
capture  of  problem  descriptions. 

To  build  and  operate  such  a  system  for 
1 40  users  over  four  years  costs 
$2, 154,000  for  the  PC  LAN  version  and 
$2,005,000  (or  $1 49,000  less)  for  the 
AS/400  version. 

Hardware  and  system  software  repre¬ 
sented  just  over  a  quarter  of  the  total  ex¬ 
penditure  for  both  configurations.  Appli¬ 
cation  development  was  costlier  for  the 
AS/400  system — just  under  $250,000 
costlier  on  average  —  and  took  seven 
months  longer.  That  advantage  for  cli¬ 
ent/server  was  offset,  however,  by  sup¬ 
port  and  maintenance  costs,  which  were 
$248,000  heavier  for  the  PC  LAN  system. 
Training  likewise  was  less  than  half  as 
much  on  the  AS/400,  re  fleeting  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  an  established  computer  archi¬ 
tecture. 

So  where  is  the  big  advantage  of  mov- 
ingto  PC  LAN  client/server? 

One  answer  is  that  after  the  initial  sys¬ 
tem  is  built,  the  network  infrastructure 


has  been  put  in  place  and  there  is  more 
internal  expertise  to  make  a  new  system 
work.  Hence,  the  cost  of  second,  third 
and  fourth  systems  gets  chopped  in  half, 
said  Forrester  senior  analyst  Neil  Hill. 

Another  is  that  client/server  offers  an 
organization  a  much  more  flexible  com- 
putingresource,  bringingdata  and  appli¬ 
cations  closer  to  end  users  and  putting 
tools  in  their  hands  to  prototype  their 
own  applications.  The  rapid  spread  of 
powerful  486  PCs  on  desktops  makes  cli¬ 


ent/server  systems  more  feasible. 

Indeed,  one  is  tempted  to  cast  out  one 
of  the  key  assumptions  made  by  Forrest¬ 
er  for  the  purposes  of  its  study:  that  both 
the  client/server  and  AS/400  builders  are 
starting  from  a  blank  slate. 

While  there  are  many  AS/400s  in  use, 
most  of  them  may  be  presumed  to  be 
heavily  used.  PCs  and  PC  LANs,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  frequently  underused. 
What  if  one  can  make  better  use  of  exist¬ 
ing  infrastructure  by  building  client/ser¬ 


ver  applications?  The  system  cost  would 
then  come  down  to  a  more  reasonable 
level. 

Savings  will  probably  elude  those  go¬ 
ing  for  the  quick  fLx  through  client/serv¬ 
er,  but  those  who  commit  to  this  ap¬ 
proach  in  the  interest  of  creating  more 
flexible,  competitive  systems  will  un¬ 
doubtedly  find  that  persistence  pays. 


Babcock  is  Computerworld's  technical  editor. 
His  MCI  Mail  address  is  575-2737. 


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Computerworld  May  31,  1993  37 


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PCs  and  Software 


Portable  computers 


Virus  watch,  40 
Voice-enabled  PCs,  40 


Legent  opens  Windows  to  data  center 

Offers  products  to  help  manage,  monitor  end-user  computing 


By  Gary  H.  Anthes 

PHOENIX 


■  Legent  Corp.  took  another  step 
out  of  the  data  center  recently, 
unveiling  five  products  for  Micro¬ 
soft  Corp.’s  Windows  and  en¬ 
hancing  other  products  for  dis¬ 
tributed  computing. 

Leading  the  way  was  a  new 
product  for  downloading,  display¬ 
ing  and  analyzing  the  output  of 
mainframe  performance  moni¬ 
tors.  PC-based  Paramount  pro¬ 
vides  a  common  graphical  user  in¬ 
terface  to  mainframe-based  tools, 
allowing  users  to  combine  on  one 
screen  and  manipulate  and  corre¬ 
late  the  output  from  multiple  prod¬ 
ucts  from  Legent  and  other  ven¬ 
dors. 

Paramount  is  based  on  the  Navi- 
Graph  product  licensed  last  year 
from  Landmark  Systems  Corp.  in 
Vienna,  Va.  Initially,  it  will  accept 
feeds  from  Legent’s  Astex,  NetSpy, 
LanSpy  and  Mies  products  and 
from  Landmark’s  Tmon  series  of 
monitor  products. 

TCP/IP  support 

Legent  also  announced  XCom  for 
Windows  and  extended  the  XCom 
product  line  for  file  transfer  and 
software  distribution  to  support 
Transmission  Control  Protocol/ 


Internet  Protocol  communica¬ 
tions. 

XCom,  previously  available  only 
for  IBM’s  Systems  Network  Archi¬ 
tecture  networks,  can  transfer 
data  between  any  of  more  than  25 
operating  environments . 

Appleton  Papers,  Inc.  in  Apple- 
ton,  Wis.,  has  been  using  the  DOS 
version  of  XCom  since  January 
and  recently  bought  the  Windows 
version  as  well. 

Terry  Sweet,  systems  program¬ 
mer,  said  XCom  for  Windows  will 
be  used  for  unattended  nighttime 
file  transfers  from  the  mainframe 
to  the  PC.  The  objective  is  to  allow 
end  users  to  produce  their  own  re¬ 
ports  and  ad  hoc  queries  from 
local  relational  databases  rather 
than  from  batch  mainframe  Cobol 
reports. 

Sweet  said  the  Windows  version 
of  XCom  will  allow  him  to  run  and 
monitor  file  transfers  and  3270  em¬ 
ulation  simultaneously.  He  said  it 
is  also  less  cumbersome  for  the 
novice  user  than  is  the  DOS  ver¬ 
sion. 

Air  Products  and  Chemicals, 
Inc.  in  Allentown,  Pa.,  uses  10  Le¬ 
gent  products  and  said  it  wel¬ 
comes  the  Windows  announce¬ 
ments. 

“We’ve  standardized  on  Win¬ 
dows  and  Ethernet,  so  it’s  impor¬ 
tant  that  our  vendors  come  along,” 


said  H.  William  R.  Townsend,  man¬ 
ager  of  computing  services  opera¬ 
tions.  “We  and  Legent  need  to  rec¬ 
ognize  a  shifting  away  from  a 
mainframe  orientation  to  more  of 
a  multiplatform  orientation.” 

Other  announcements 

Legent  also  rolled  out  the  follow- 
ingproducts: 

•N-Vision  for  Windows,  which 
moves  session  management  from 
the  host  to  the  workstation  and  of¬ 
fers  simultaneous  access  to  multi¬ 
ple  applications,  each  appearing 
in  its  own  window.  It  is  based  on 
software  rather  than  emulator 
boards. 

•JobTrac  PC,  which  enables  us¬ 
ers  to  graphically  build  and  fore¬ 
cast  job  schedules  and  make  flow¬ 
charts. 

•Sar  PC,  which  allows  Windows 
users  to  view,  access  and  print 
host  reports  locally,  offering  users 
on-line  viewing  and  on-site  print¬ 
ing. 

Steve  Heitmeier,  systems  pro¬ 
grammer  at  Steelcase,  Inc.  in 
Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  said  he  re¬ 
cently  acquired  both  the  DOS  and 
the  Windows  versions  of  Sar  PC. 
He  said  the  Windows  version  has 
the  advantage  of  allowing  users  to 
select  a  font  that  shows  all  132  re¬ 
port  columns  at  once,  even  on  a 
standard  80-column  screen. 


Pendulum  swings  back  to  IS 


In  speeches  and  technical  sessions  at  its  recent 
user  conference,  Legent  pointed  out  that  end  us¬ 
ers,  impatient  with  the  pace  of  activity  in  the 
glass  house,  have  attempted  in  recent  years  to 
wrest  the  reins  of  information  systems  manage¬ 
ment  from  the  data  center  manager. 

But  now,  Legent  argued,  those  same  users  are 
becoming  overwhelmed  by  the  accelerating  pace  of 
technology  change  and  the  lack  of  tools  for  managing 
distributed  systems.  The  pendulum  of  IS  control  is 
now  swinging  back  in  favor  of  the  traditional  IS  man¬ 
agement  professional,  Legent  said. 

That  idea  seemed  to  strike  a  responsive  chord 
among  the  1, 100  mostly  mainframe-centric  confer¬ 
ence  attendees. 

“Users  have  gotten  tired  of  doingbackups,  they  are 
tired  of  having  the  cleaning  crew  knock  their  server  s 
off-line,  and  they  realize  they  are  not  equipped  to  han¬ 
dle  disaster  recovery,  tape  storage  and  fire  protec¬ 
tion,”  said  H.  William  R.  Townsend,  who  manages 
worldwide  computer  operations  at  the  $3  billion  Air 
Products  and  Chemicals. 

Townsend  said  there  is  a  bottom-up  movement  from 
users  at  his  company  to  seek  help  from  the  central  IS 
staff,  somethinghe  said  he  welcomes  but  has  no  in¬ 
cremental  budget  to  support.  In  response,  Townsend 
said  he  has  undertaken  a  broad  array  of  cost-cutting 
and  efficiency-improving  measures  - —  such  as  con- 
solidatingmaintenance  agreements,  terminatinglit- 
tle-used  software  licenses  and  bringing  in  automated 
system  management  aids  —  that  are  allowinghim  to 
tackle  system  management  chores  for  remote  users. 

Townsend  said  IS  managers  should  be  more  aggres¬ 
sive  in  reducing  their  own  costs  while  simultaneously 
seizing  the  opportunity  presented  by  the  befuddled 
end  user.  “If  they  don’t,  they  will  be  out  of  jobs  in  five 
years,”  he  said.  — Gary  H.  Anthes 


Client/server 

Bank  enlists  PCs,  Macs  to 
speed  information  retrieval 


By  James  Daly 

ATLANTA 


If  time  is  money,  The  Prudential  Bank  & 
Trust  Co.  had  been  spending  lots  of  cash 
just  sittingon  its  hands. 

With  the  financial  marketplace  grow¬ 
ing  increasingly  competitive  and  Pru¬ 
dential  drawing  up  plans  for  expansion, 
obtaining  crucial  decision-making  infor¬ 
mation  quickly  and  easily  became  a  crit¬ 
ical  business  requirement  for  the  $150 
million  financial  services  firm. 

Previously,  all  of  Prudential’s  core 
data  processing,  including  the  reporting 
function,  was  handled  by  outside  ven¬ 
dors  using  a  variety  of  IBM  mainframes. 
Requests  were  sent  directly  to  the  ven¬ 
dor’s  information  systems  departments, 
which  generated  reports.  The  reports 


were  printed  at  the  bank  —  generally 
seven  or  more  days  after  the  initial  re¬ 
quest  —  and  then  forwarded  to  the  busi¬ 
ness  manager.  If  additional  information 
was  needed,  he  sent  another  report  re¬ 
quest. 

“Users  felt  that  they  were  running 
blind,”  said  David  Rowan,  vice  president 
of  Prudential’s  information  services. 

Something  had  to  change,  he  said,  and 
it  needed  to  change  fast.  Rowan  and  his 
team  gathered  and  began  brainstorming 
about  a  client/server  system.  They  knew 
they  needed  to  achieve  three  simple  ob¬ 
jectives: 

•Eliminate  the  reporting  backlog  by  re¬ 
ducing  the  information  delivery  cycle 
from  days  to  minutes. 

•Give  users  a  more  flexible  analysis  ca¬ 
pability,  providing  the  ability  to  create 


“what-if”  queries  to  the  corporate  data¬ 
base  and  drill  down  into  the  data  to  un¬ 
cover  new  trends  or  correlations. 
•Reduce  IS  operating  costs.  The  hope 
was  that  users  could  perform  their  own 
reporting  and  data  analysis  without  re- 


quiringtoo  much  IS  involvement. 

The  data  warehouse  they  created  re¬ 
ceives  its  data  from  existing  transaction 
systems,  Rowan  said.  Data  on  the  main¬ 
frame  is  extracted  on  a  nightly  basis, 
transmitted  using  Remote  Job  Entry  and 
stored  in  several  de¬ 
partmental  Oracle 
Corp.  local-access 
databases  running 
on  Apple  Computer, 
Inc.  Macintosh  Quad¬ 
ra  950  computers. 
Users  access  the  da¬ 
ta  from  a  mix  of  Mac¬ 
intoshes  and  PCs. 

Rowan  said  the 
bank  also  has  access 
to  transaction  data 
on  a  DB2  database 
that  is  accessed  via 
Apple’s  Data  Access 
Language  (DAL), 
which  enables  inter¬ 
active  data  access  to 
multiple  database 
servers.  Part  of  the 
Bank,  page  40 


Prudential  Bank  offers  users  a  more  timely  and 

CONVENIENT  WAY  OF  ACCESSING  DATA 


Mainframe 

transaction 

, - \ 

databases: 

L.  A-. 

•  Customer 

•  Bank 

C 

transactions 

•  Products 

Daily  update  via  RJE 


Data 

warehouse 
(DB2)  on 
mainframe 


Middleware 


Local-access  databases 
(Oracle)  on  Macintosh 
Quadra  950 


DAL  for  D82,  SQLNet 
for  Oracle 


Query  tool:  CtearAccess 
Analysis  tool:  Excel 
Applications:  4D  and  HyperCard 


CW  Chart:  Michael  Siggins 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  39 


Desktop  Computing 


No  summer  vacation  for  June  viruses 


By  James  Daly 


*June  brings  with  it  three  nasty  and 
destructive  viruses  that  will  eat  you 
up  faster  than  bugs  at  a  barbecue. 

One  is  Sub-Zero  B,  a  variant  of  the 
well-known  Jerusalem  virus,  that  acti¬ 
vates  on  June  6.  It  is  a  memory-resi¬ 
dent  generic  file  infector  that  hits 
.COM,  .EXE,  .SYS,  BIN.,  .PIF  and  over¬ 
lay  files  when  they  are  executed. 

Following  infection,  Sub-Zero  trun¬ 
cates  executed  files  on  the  last  Friday 
of  any  subsequent  month.  On  its  acti¬ 
vation  date,  it  will  attempt  to  format 
the  hard  disk. 

Another  ugly  customer  is  the  Kenne¬ 
dy  virus,  which  is  sometimes  called 
Dead  Kennedy  or  333.  It  is  a  generic  in¬ 
fector  of  .COM  files,  including  COM- 
MAND.COM.  The  virus  activates  on 


three  important  and  sorrowful  dates  in 
the  history  of  the  Kennedy  clan:  June  6 
(the  assassination  of  Robert  Kennedy 
in  1968);  Nov.  18  (the  death  of  patriarch 
Joseph  Kennedy  in  1969);  and  Nov.  22 
(the  assassination  of  President  John  E 
Kennedy  in  1963). 

Upon  activation,  the  virus  displays 
the  message:  “Kennedy  is  dead  —  long 
live  the  Dead  Kennedys ,”  which  relates 
to  a  former  rock  group  from  the  San 
Francisco  Bay  area.  These  text  strings 
can  also  be  found  in  the  code:  “com- 
mand.com,”  “The  Dead  Kennedys.” 

The  Kennedy  virus  can  cause  sever¬ 
al  system  problems  that  may  result  in 
a  loss  of  data,  including  cross-linking 
of  files,  lost  clusters  and  file  allocation 
table  errors. 

The  late  bloomer  of  the  bunch  is  Cra¬ 
zy  Eddie,  a  memory-resident  virus  that 
activates  on  June  28  as  well  as  on  every 


Monday  that  falls  on  the  28th.  On  these 
dates  it  corrupts  the  system  hard  disk 
by  overwriting  it  with  characters  from 
memory. 

Crazy  Eddie  infects  the  hard  disk 
partition  table  as  well  as  COM- 
MAND.COM,  .COM  and  .EXE  programs. 
The  first  time  an  infected  program  is 
executed,  the  virus  infects  the  hard 
disk  partition  table.  Once  the  partition 
table  has  been  infected,  Crazy  Eddie 
will  become  memory-resident  when 
the  system  is  rebooted. 

As  with  all  viruses,  these  activation 
dates  are  for  general  awareness  and 
are  not  exclusive.  June  is  also  pep¬ 
pered  with  many  nondestructive  nui¬ 
sance  viruses,  according  to  officials  at 
Fifth  Generation  Systems,  Inc.,  a  devel¬ 
oper  of  utility  and  data  security  soft¬ 
ware  in  Baton  Rouge,  La.  And  remem¬ 
ber  to  keep  backing  up  those  floppies. 


Viruses  expected  to  activate  in  June 


June  1,8,15,22,29 

June  12,19,26 

Ah,  Kamasya,  Demon 

Italian  Pest, 

June  2 

Phenome,  Migram 

Victor,  Flip,  Tormentor 

June  16 

June  4,11,18,25 

June  16th,  Victor 

Frere  Jacques,  Smack, 
Payday 

June  13 

June  5 

Sunday,  Monxla 

Italian  Pest,  Phenome 

June  18 

Migram,  Frog’s  Alley 

Skism,  Form 

June  6 

Sunday,  Jerusalem  (Sub 

June  20,27 

Zero  B),  Kennedy 

Sunday 

June  7,14,21,28 

June  24 

Garfield,  Exterminator, 

Form 

Badguy 

June  9,16,23,30 

June  25 

Victor 

Sub  Zero 

June  10,20,30 

June  28 

Day  10 

Crazy  Eddie 

Source:  FGS  Virus  Watch,  Baton  Rouge.  La.  CW  Chart:  Michael  Siggins 


Primavera  offers  Windows-based  planner 


Bank  enlists  PCs 


By  Michael  Fitzgerald 

B  ALA  CYNWVD,  PA. 


It  took  four  and  a  half  years,  but  Pri¬ 
mavera  Systems,  Inc.  has  released  a 
version  of  its  high-end  project  manage¬ 
ment  program  for  Microsoft  Corp.’s 
Windows  environment. 

Primavera  Project  Planner  for  Win¬ 
dows  combines  Project  Planner  5.1  for 
MS-DOS  and  Primavera’s  hourly 
scheduler,  Finest  Hour  5.1.  The  Win- 


By  Stephen  P.  Klett  Jr. 


Creative  Labs,  Inc.,  a  leadingvendor  of 
PC  sound  and  video  boards,  and  Voice 
Processing  Corp.,  a  maker  of  speech 
recognition  software,  have  teamed  up 
to  bring  voice-enabled  PCs  into  the 
home  and  business  markets. 

Creative  Labs  in  Milpitas,  Calif.,  has 
licensed  Voice  Processing’s  VProCom- 
mand  technology  to  provide  the  soft¬ 
ware  engine  for  its  VoiceAssist  speech- 
recognition  system. 

VoiceAssist  allows  Microsoft  Corp. 
Windows  users  to  execute  voice-acti¬ 
vated  commands  and  includes  32  pre¬ 
trained  Windows  commands  to  get  us¬ 
ers  rolling.  It  supports  an  active 
vocabulary  of  1,000  words  for  up  to  30 
applications  for  a  total  vocabulary  of 
30,000  words.  VoiceAssist  is  shipping 
now  with  Creative  Labs’  Sound  Blaster 
16  audio  expansion  card  for  $279. 

VProCommand  is  a  desktop  adapta¬ 
tion  of  Cambridge,  Mass.-based  Voice 
Processing’s  continuous  voice-recog¬ 
nition  technology  for  the  telephony  in¬ 
dustry. 

VoiceAssist  is  not  meant  to  be  the 
"Holy  Grail  of  voice  recognition  sys- 


dows  version  can  share  data  with  the 
DOS-based  product,  according  to  com¬ 
pany  officials. 

“We  think  it  offers  a  chance  for  peo¬ 
ple  to  look  at  their  existing  information 
in  a  very  different  way,”  said  Richard 
K.  Faris,  Primavera’s  vice  president  of 
technical  development. 

Under  Windows,  Primavera  Project 
Planner  —  or  P4  —  lets  users  attach 
graphical  objects  to  a  variety  of  lay¬ 
outs  and  to  display  data  in  bar  charts, 


terns,”  said  Jeffrey  Hill,  vice  president 
of  product  development  at  Voice  Pro¬ 
cessing,  “but  rather  an  initial  assault 
to  get  people  used  to  the  idea  of  talking 
to  their  computers.” 

Hill  said  Sound  Blaster  has  an  in¬ 
stalled  base  of  more  than  3  million,  and 
Creative  Labs  is  shipping  120,000 
cards  a  month,  which  represents  a  sig¬ 
nificant  market  for  developers. 

Based  on  Sound  Blaster’s  wide¬ 
spread  acceptance,  analysts  said,  Cre¬ 
ative  Labs  has  the  potential  to  do  well 
with  VoiceAssist.  However,  they  ques¬ 
tioned  the  practicality  of  VoiceAssist  in 
the  corporate  marketplace  because 
multimedia  has  yet  to  take  off. 

“In  the  short  term,  it’s  going  to  be  a 
niche  product,”  said  Ted  Julian,  an  an¬ 
alyst  at  International  Data  Corp.  in 
Framingham,  Mass.  He  said  the  prod¬ 
uct  has  good  potential  for  disabled  us¬ 
ers  and  for  users  “who  just  want  to  do 
cool  things  with  their  PCs.” 

VoiceAssist  supports  DOS  3.3  and 
above,  Windows  3.1  and  OS/2  1.3  and 
above.  A  VoiceAssist  application  pro¬ 
gramming  interface  is  available  to  de¬ 
velopers  of  PC-based  speech-recogni¬ 
tion  applications  at  no  charge. 


Software  of  the  rich  and  famous 

Project  planning  software  from  Pri¬ 
mavera  has  been  used  for  a  variety 
of  high-profile  projects,  among  them 
President  Clinton’s  inauguration 
parade,  the  building  of  the  Toronto 
Skydome  and  the  new  United  Airlines 
terminal  at  Chicago’s  O’Hare  Interna- 
tional  Airport. 

histograms  and  other  forms.  Multiple 
schedules  can  also  be  compared  on¬ 
screen  at  the  same  time,  and  users  can 
reportedly  attach  live  graphics  to  the 
file,  such  as  a  diagram  or  a  picture. 

Faris  said  Primavera  also  took  ad¬ 
vantage  of  Windows  to  create  exten¬ 
sive  on-line  Help  files;  for  example,  an 
animated  tutorial  assists  users.  Pri¬ 
mavera  estimated  that  its  current  us¬ 
ers  can  be  up  to  speed  on  P4  within  two 
hours  and  that  newer  users  will  be 
slowed  only  by  the  time  it  takes  them 
to  learn  principles  of  project  manage¬ 
ment. 

OS/2  no  more 

The  Windows  version  took  a  long  time 
to  develop  in  part  because  the  compa¬ 
ny  initially  developed  it  for  IBM’s  OS/2. 
Primavera  abandoned  that  effort, 
along  with  plans  to  develop  project 
software  for  the  Unix  market  and  for 
Digital  Equipment  Corp.  VAX  systems. 

“Unix  and  VAX  project  management 
markets  are  moribund,”  Faris  assert¬ 
ed.  He  added  that  with  Unix  vendors 
readying  an  application  programming 
interface  to  let  Windows  applications 
run  under  Unix,  “we  may  never  have 
to  port  from  Windows.” 

Primavera  Project  Planner  for  Win¬ 
dows  requires  a  486-based  PC  with  at 
least  8M  bytes  of  random-access  mem¬ 
ory.  The  software  costs  $4,000. 


PCs  to  get  voice  functions 


CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  39 

DAL  software  resides  on  the  client  while  the 
rest  resides  on  the  server.  Most  Macintosh-to- 
host  access  in  the  past  has  been  through  termi¬ 
nal  emulation.  Prudential  uses  Fairfield  Soft¬ 
ware,  Inc.’s  Clear  Access  to  access  the  DB2 
database. 

Double-barreled  gun 

Management  used  a  two-pronged  approach  to 
middleware,  Rowan  said.  It  chose  DAL  for  con¬ 
nectivity  to  the  DB2  data  warehouse  and  Ora¬ 
cle’s  SQLNet  to  facilitate  connectivity  to  the  Or¬ 
acle  database.  Once  queries  are  constructed, 
they  can  be  saved  for  later  use  or  published  on 
the  network  for  others  to  use,  he  added. 

Rowan  noted  that  Acius,  Inc.’s  4th  Dimension 
and  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Excel  spreadsheet  are 
important  in  manipulating  the  system  because 
the  user  can  freely  analyze  data  and  execute 
SQL  queries  to  the  data  warehouse.  “IS  gives 
up  micro  control,  but  yields  broader  impact  on 
the  business,”  he  added. 

Six  months  after  it  was  begun,  the  project 
was  finished.  Rowan  said  that  users  can  now 
access  data  more  directly,  without  the  interven¬ 
tion  of  the  IS  department.  The  reporting  back- 
logis  a  thing  of  the  past. 

Users  can  also  examine  the  data  in  new 
ways,  taking  advantage  of  specialized  report¬ 
ing  and  analysis  tools  to  strip  away  levels  of 
data  until  they  hit  the  mother  lode  of  informa¬ 
tion  they  are  looking  for.  Using  the  former  sys¬ 
tem,  data  would  need  to  be  rekeyed  into  spread¬ 
sheets  or  other  reporting  tools  to  create  a 
custom  report. 

In  addition,  the  majority  of  the  reporting 
function  is  handled  by  the  users  themselves, 
rather  than  by  outside  vendors.  Estimated  an¬ 
nual  savings  in  reporting  costs:  $500,000. 

Perhaps  most  importantly,  Prudential  is  now 
ready  to  face  the  time-critical  challenges  of  the 
financial  market  with  a  quick  and  muscular 
system.  “Analysis  was  reduced  from  a  normal 
one-week  turnaround  to  under  five  minutes  in 
some  cases,”  Rowan  said.  “This  is  power.” 


40  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Seven  reasons  to  get  the  OLCP  edge 


1.  OLCP  vs.  OLTP 

Borland’s  InterBase™  is  the  first  high- 
performance  relational  database  server 
to  satisfy  your  real-world  computing 
demands.  That’s  the  benefit  of  On-Line 
Complex  Processing  (OLCP).  InterBase’s 
OLCP  accelerates  throughput  for  short, 
OLTP-type  transactions,  and  provides  out¬ 
standing  support  for  longer,  data-intensive 
analytic  transactions  using  distributed  and 
complex  data. 

2. Multigenerational 
architecture 

InterBase  outperforms  all  other  databases 
in  your  real-world  applications.  Its  unique 
multigenerational  architecture  results 
in  the  fastest  response  times  in  mixed 
read/write  situations.  And  writers  aren’t 
locked  out  by  readers. 

3.  Two-phase  commit  equals 
integrity  for  distributed  data 

InterBase’s  unique  “peer-to-peer”  architec¬ 
ture  dramatically  improves  network  perfor¬ 
mance.  Frequently  used  data  can  be  stored 
locally,  while  maintaining  access  to  all 
data  anywhere  on  the  network.  And  auto¬ 
matic  two-phase  commit  ensures  data 
integrity  by  protecting  distributed  data  from 
duplication,  loss,  and  concurrency  problems. 


4.  Multidimensional  arrays  for 
high-performance  read/write 

InterBase’s  multidimensional  arrays  store 
and  retrieve  data  10  to  40  times  faster  than 
traditional  rows-and-columns  formats. 
Plus,  indexed  arrays  make  it  far  easier 
for  developers  to  build  and  maintain 
applications. 

5.  BLOb  filters  make  it  easy 
to  use  multimedia  data 

InterBase  sets  the  standard  for  support  of 
multimedia  data  or  BLObs™  (Binary  Large 
Objects).  Any  length  and  type  of  data  can 
be  stored — text,  graphics,  sound,  video, 
even  raw  data  from  instruments.  And 
special  BLOb™  filters  let  you  compress 
and  translate  data,  making  InterBase  the 
only  database  for  handling  complex  data. 

6.  Easy  code  generation 
and  maintenance 

No  one  gives  you  better  tools  for  main¬ 
taining  data  integrity  and  monitoring  criti¬ 
cal  data.  Modular,  sequenceable  triggers 
are  ideal  for  enforcing  referential  integrity 
and  other  business  rules.  Event  alerters 
prompt  real-time  notification  when  data 
changes,  while  minimizing  network  traffic 
and  use  of  system  resources.  It  all  adds  up 
to  superior  database  performance. 


B  0  R  L  A  N 


7.  The  power  of  Borland 
is  behind  InterBase 

Your  investment  in  InterBase  is  backed  by 
Borland  International,  Inc.,  the  company 
that  is  #1  in  relational  database  technology 
and  #1  in  customer  satisfaction. 


I  Event  Alert! 

Don’t  miss  the  Borland  InterBase 
seminar  coming  soon.  Fill  in  and 

■  return  the  attached  response  card 

■  today!  Or,  for  more  information  on 
InterBase  and  seminar  registration, 

|  call  now!  | 
I  1-800-245-7367  . 

1  or  call  (408)  431 -5429  8 

I _ I 

D 


I 

I 

I 

I 


The  Leader  in  Object-Oriented  Programming 


Copyright  ©  1993  Borland  International.  Inc.  All  rights  reserved.  InterBase  is  a  trademark  of  Borland  International,  Inc.  B1  4321.2 


Lotus  Notes 


File  Edit  View  Mail  Compose  Text  Tools  Design  Window  Help 


£i  a.zra.B  /  u 

Workspace 


syirtem  mgml 


Worldwide  Discussion  Main  View 


Customer  Request  (2  Responses] 


Subject  Customer  Request 

Category:  Product  Changes 


One  of  our  largest  distnbutors.  Education  Resources.  Inc  .  wants  to  order  8,000  new 
globes  (WOW  ).  However,  these  globes  must  reflect  the  latest  political  boundaries  in 
Eastern  Europe  I  understand  that  we  have  not  yet  updated  our  globes  to  meet  these 
specifications. 


How  fast  can  we  turn  this  around  to  save  this  sale?  I  need  an  answer  by  this 
afternoon 


Main  Topic 


Author  Frank  Bobson 


Dote  Composed.  03/31/93  12:08  PM 


IThis  is  James’  Notes  desktop.  He  uses  it  to  access  information  and  work  quickly 
with  people  in  all  departments  to  solve  problems  worldwide.  James  clicks  on 
the  Worldwide  Discussion  application  to  catch  up  with  important  company  news. 
The  Smartlcons  across  the  top  make  it  even  easier  to  work  in  Notes. 


The  field  rep  in  Texas  is  working  on  a  request  from  a  customer. 
But  to  make  the  sale  the  product,  in  this  case  a  globe,  has  to  be 
changed  to  reflect  the  most  up-to-date  countries  and  borders. 
And  evidently  time  is  critical.  The  competition  must  already  be  in  there  pitching. 


Worldwide 

Discussion 


Lotus  Notes 


File  Edit  View  Mail  Compose  Jext  Tools  Design  Window  Help 


B  /  Ji-i 


Workspace 


Engineering  Change  Orders  -  2.  Ready  to  Process  ECO’s 

#  ECO  id 

Date  Build  date  Plant  Effectivity  Type 

♦ 

1  MSherman-224 

03/30/93  4/29  North  Reading  Availability  Effectivity  Chi 

— 

2  MSherman-226 

03/30/93  4/29  Carver  Availability  IPMS/IPDS 

3  MSherman-228 

03/30/93  4/29  North  Reading  Availability  Effectivity  Chi 

4  SMullanc 

Standard  ECO  id  #  TCone-257 

5  _ TCone-2 

6  WHerrinc 

Standard  E.C.O. 

♦ 

7  WHerrmr 

— 

Date:  03/31/93 

ECO  id:  TCone-257 

Initiator:  Tern/ Cone 

Extension:  36143 

Plant: 

<§>  North  Reading  only 

O  Carver  only 

O  N.  Reading  &  Carver 

Describe  Chenpesi  Eastern  Europe  to  be  politically  current. 

Click  here  for  supporting  documents  — >  Q 

♦ 

1 

M 

i  i 

□ 

Once  he  has  the  information,  he  clicks  on  the  Engineering  Change 
1 88‘  Order  application  to  request  specific  product  changes  from  the 

Engineering  1  1  1  r  1  ° 

plant,  in  North  Reading.  He  links  the  supporting  Newswire 


Change  Orders 


information  to  the  E.C.O.  It  will  be  easily  viewed  with  a  single  click  of  a  button. 


6 

H  4- 

U. 

Requisition 

Approvals 

After  lunch  he  opens  a  document  from  Ellen  in  product  development,  who 
has  responded  with  the  necessary  changes,  and  scheduling  information. 
The  new  art  was  scanned  directly  through  Lotus  Notes:  Document 


Imaging  from  the  ait  department.  James  approves  the  art  for  manufacturing. 


Thousands  of  companies  already  know  how 
Lotus  Notes  helps  them  respond  more  quickly 
and  effectively  to  the  demands  of  everyday 
business.  Now  Release  3  extends  that  power 
to  new  dimensions. 

Just  watch  how  James  Carlton,  a  new  dis¬ 
trict  manager  at  Global  Publishing,  uses  Notes 
Release  3  to  solve  a  major  global  problem  in 
short  order.  See  how  he  uses  information  from 
on-site  and  remote  locations.  From  both  inside 
the  company  and  external  sources.  Across  a 


•UNIX  .W  ai..i  ■  .wit!  iun.it*- 1*  >>■»  rrid  HUM  In  CuwUa,  MWMMMjOTIH  SI993  Uh»  Dnvtopmcnt 


variety  of  platforms.  How  he  uses  applications 
such  as  Account  Tracking,  Newswire,  and 
Engineering  Change  Orders  to  get  a  new  product 
developed  fast.  And  how  he  creates  an  informal 
team  spanning  a  range  of  departments  to  do  it. 

With  the  new  Release  3,  Lotus  Notes  now 
supports  all  the  leading  GUI  platforms:  Windows;' 
OS/2;  UNIX;  *  even  Macintosh! 

Which  means  the  award-winning  workgroup 
power  of  Lotus  Notes  is  now  readily  available  to 
help  virtually  all  networked  businesses  improve 

Corporation.  55  Cambridge  Parkway.  Cambridge.  MA  02142.  All  rights  reserved.  Lotus,  Lotus  Notes  and  1-2-3  are  register 


He  clicks  on  the  Customer  Tracking  application  to  learn  more  about  A 

NEWS 

mi  s 

this  customer.  The  profile  includes  an  attached  1-2-3®  spreadsheet. 

HIRE  4 

T  lacking 

He  double  clicks  the  icon  to  open  the  spreadsheet  and  finds  that 

Notes  News 

Education  Resources  is  a  very  large  customer  that  pays  its  bills. 


James'  next  step  is  to  click  on  the  Newswire  database  for  the  most 
up-to-date  report  on  precisely  what  geographical  changes  will  have 
to  be  made  on  the  new  globe.  And  just  how  extensive  they’ll  be. 


Workspace 


la 

Lotus  Notes 

File  Edit  View  Mail  Compose  Jext  Tools  Design  Window  Help 


— MMtt— in— 

Dl  Hh 

»  IM  < 

i  customer  service  p»o 

d»tcJ  mgmi  account  mgmt 

research  HKjlISaSSITIuSH  development  j1 

New  Product  Tracking  - 


Product  Updates  (Ellen  Byron.  2  responses) 

Engineering  and  Design  (Jim  Menlo,  1  response) 


Reponsiveness  to  our  Customers  (James  Carlton ) 


05/1 8/92 
05/i  oFT- 
05/20, 
07/31, 
08/19 
08/20, 
08/20 
08/23, 
08/23 
08/25, 
08/26 
09/01 
09/11, 
06/31, 
09/10, 


New  Maps  (DAVID  JONES,  1  response) 


Response  to  "Engineering  and  Design" 


Response 

Author  James  Carlton  Date  Composed:  05:31  PM  Today 
Subject:  Responsiveness  to  our  Customers 

While  I  understand  the  concerns  of  Manufacturing  regarding  the  quick 
changes  we  are  requesting.  I  appreciate  the  rapid  response  of  your 
organizations  in  helping  us  meet  the  special  requirements  of  our 
largest  customer.  Education  Resources,  Inc.,  on  such  short  notice. 


Working  Together.' 


■  Fastest  turnaround  to  date! 

■  Another  happy  customer! 

■  Beat  the  competition! 


Lotus  Notes  -  Response  to  Customer  Request" 


File  Edit  View  Mail  Compose  Text  Tools  Design  Window  Help 


/  -  V  t>2 Ju  B  r  ,u,  «  -a 


Response 

Author.  James  Carlton  Date  Composed:  04  :23  PM  Today 
Subject  Congratulations,  gang! 


Please  take  a  look  at  the  attached  Freelance  Graphics  presentation  that  I  will  be 
showing  at  the  Senior  Management  meeting  this  Thursday. 


PRt  SE  NT.PHE 


GREAT  WORK! 


a  be 


PRESENT  PRE 


Respond  lo  (his  Response  j 

Respond  lolhe  Main  Ionic  | 


Sl|  Page  1  oil  |l*|j  F’age  Layouf  j  NewPsgg  |  «•  [ 


On  the  Product  Tracking  application,  all  departments  involved  have 
confirmed  that  they  can  meet  the  schedule.  However,  they’ve  cau¬ 
tioned  James  to  be  careful  about  rushing  schedules  in  the  future. 
James  uses  the  Discussion  database  to  acknowledge  their  comments  and  thank 
them  for  their  efforts. 


7. 


JL_1 

Product  Catalog 
&  Requisitions 


Wanting  to  record  and  promote  the  team’s  accomplishments,  James 
puts  together  a  presentation  for  senior  management  in  Freelance 
Graphics.  Then  he  posts  the  presentation  in  the  Presentation  data¬ 
base  so  eveiyone  can  see  how  the  team  rearranged  the  world  to  save  a  big  account. 


Worldwide 

Discussion 


their  performance.  By  accelerating  business  processes 
and  helping  people  work  together  more  effectively 
than  ever  before. 

You’ll  find  your  favorite  user-friendly  features  from 
other  Lotus’  applications  like  Smartlcons1  and  a  status 
bar  make  Notes  even  easier  to  use. 

Release  3  also  features  enhanced  templates  that 
are  very  easy  to  customize  so  you  can  build  new  appli¬ 
cations  faster  and  more  efficiently. 

But  you  don’t  have  to  change  your  world  to  get  going 
on  Notes.  Now  you  can  get  everything  you  need  in  the 


Lotus  Notes  Starter  Pack  for  just  $995  (SRP).  It  includes 
one  Notes  Server  for  Windows  and  two  Notes  Clients  for 
Windows.  Plus  more  than  25  ready-to-use  applications  for 
business  processes  like  account  management,  customer 
service  and  product  development.  For  information  call 
1-800-828-7086,  ext  8904  or  visit  your  Lotus  Authorized 
Reseller  or  Lotus  Business  Partner. 


Lotus 


Notes 


Workgroup  Applications  Software  for  Windows 


trademarks  and  Smartlcons  is  a  trademark  of  Lotus  Development  Corporation.  Windows  is  a  trademark  of  Microsoft  Corporation.  OS/2  is  a  registered  trademark  of  IBM,  Inc.  UNIX  is  a  registered  trademark  of  UNIX  Systems  Laboratories.  Inc,  Macintosh  b  a  registered  trademark  of  Apple  Computer,  Inc. 


The 

SAS®  System 
for  EIS 


Total  Quality  Management  System 

Critical  Success  Factors  Menu 


Quality  Control 


Customer  Service 


Program  Costs 


Vendor/Supplier 

Inspections 


Plant  Productivity 


I  ■< 

*  ■  i 

\  / — 

7 

•* 

VTr  S. 

The  Difference  Between 
PhceWue  and  RealWue 


It  takes  more  than  a  fancy  front  end  to  make  a  full  - 
function  Executive  Information  System.  To  be  of  real 
value,  an  EIS  must  deliver  the  right  information  to  the 
right  people  at  the  right  time... to  support  strategic 
decision  making.  That’s  why  you  need  the  SAS  System. 

Software  that’s  Changing  the  Face 
of  Information  Delivery 

Of  course  the  SAS  System  gives  executives  such  EIS  ‘"basics” 
as  up-front  menus... pull-down  windows. ..drill-down, 
traffic-lighting,  hot-spotting,  and  exception  reporting... 
graphical  display  of  critical  success  factors. ..and  desktop 
productivity  tools  such  as  calendars,  notepads,  a  letter¬ 
writing  facility,  and  access  to  native  electronic  mail. 

But  the  benefits  of  the  SAS  System  extend  far  below 
the  surface.  As  the  world’s  leading  information  delivery 
system,  the  SAS  System  provides  total  control  over  data 
access,  management,  analysis,  and  presentation.  Execu¬ 
tives  can  directly  access  all  kinds  of  data  sources — 
including  data  locked  away  in  database  management 
systems.  And  they  can  analyze  and  present  data  using 

Printed  in  the  USA. 


specialized  tools  for  project  management,  forecasting 
and  financial  reporting,  and  hundreds  of  other  tasks... 
all  fully  integrated. 

Information  managers  can  build  a  custom-tailored  EIS... 
in  far  less  time,  and  using  fewer  resources,  than  it  takes 
to  force -fit  an  off-the-shelf  solution  into  your  organiza¬ 
tion.  And  because  the  SAS  System  is  entirely  portable, 
you  can  integrate  data  and  applications  from  different 
computing  environments  into  a  single,  company-wide 
information  delivery  system. 

Free  Video  Preview...Call  Today. 

There’s  more  to  the  SAS  System  for  EIS  than  meets  the 
eye.  Call  us  now  at  919-677-8200  to  arrange  for  your  free 
video  preview... plus  details  about  a  no-risk  software 
evaluation  and  upcoming  SAS  System  executive  briefings. 

SAS  Institute  Inc. 

Software  Sales  Department 
SAS  Campus  Drive  □  Cary,  NC  27513 
ty®  Phone  919-677-8200  □  Fax  919-677-8123 

SAS  is  a  registered  trademark  of  SAS  Institute  Inc.  Copyright©  1991  by  SAS  Institute  Inc. 


Commentary 


Paul  Gillin 


NT  great 
for  some 

Will  Windows 
NT  make  the 
big  time?  It's 
becoming 
pretty  obvious 
that,  lacking 
serious  bugs, 
it  will  be  a 
slam-dunk 
winner  on  power  users’  desktops. 
Microsoft  said  80%  of  the  applica¬ 
tions  in  the  Sun  Solaris  catalogare 
already  being  ported  to  NT,  and  it 
pledged  that  the  Top  200  Windows 
applications  will  run  seamlessly 
on  the  new  operating  system. 

Can’t  argue  with  those  numbers. 

But  what  about  the  corporate 
server?  Given  Microsoft’s  spotty 
history  there,  I’d  bet  it’s  in  for  a 
long,  slow  haul.  Consider  these 
factors: 

•  Microsoft  has  had  practically  no 
success  selling  products  that  don’t 
come  out  of  a  shrink-wrapped  box. 
Its  multiuser  SQL  Server  database 
is  an  asterisk  on  the  market  share 
charts.  LAN  Managerwas  steam- 
rolled  by  Novell’s  NetWare.  Even 
Lotus  is  winningthe  E-mail  wars. 
Complex  products  such  as  server 
operating  systems  require  long 
sales  cycles,  relationship  building 
and  lots  of  negotiating. 

Windows  NT’s  scalability  may 
be  a  paper  tiger.  Microsoft  said  cor¬ 
porate  IS  will  flock  to  NT  because 
it  will  run  on  everything  from  a  PC 
to  a  mainframe.  But  scalable  oper- 
atingsystems  arenothingnewand 
have  never  had  a  big  competitive 
edge  in  the  computer  industry. 
VMS  is  scalable,  but  DEC  never 
penetrated  the  mainframe  data 
center  or  the  desktop  with  it.  U sers 
haven’t  asked  for  mainframe  Net¬ 
Ware  or  desktop  MVS.  Unix  has 
made  few  inroads  outside  of  work¬ 
stations  and  minicomputers.  So 
scalability  has  a  lousy  sales 
record. 

What  users  want  is  a  good  set  of 
application  programming  inter¬ 
faces  and  middleware  utilities 
that  let  them  leverage  their  exist¬ 
ing  investments.  Microsoft  should 
concentrate  on  givingthem  that 
and  workingWindows  NT  into  the 
computer  mix  over  time.  But  don’t 
expect  users  to  throw  their  exist- 
Gillin,  page  47 


DOS,  Unix  coexistence  matures 

DOS,  Windows  emulation  just  the  beginningfor  runningPC  applications  on  Unix 


By  Christopher  Lindquist 


DOS  and  Microsoft  Corp.  Windows  emula¬ 
tion  software  for  Unix  workstations  has 
been  around  for  years,  but  new  approach¬ 
es  to  running  the  thousands  of  PC  applica¬ 
tions  under  Unix  are  appearing. 

There  was  a  time  when  Unix  us¬ 
ers  needing  to  run  PC  software 
had  to  procure  an  Intel  Corp.- 
based  machine  and  fill  up  more 
desk  space.  Then  along  came  DOS 
and  Windows  emulation  software 
that  let  them  run  their  PC  applica¬ 
tions  on  the  workstation — slowly. 

Now,  as  hardware  performance  and  emu¬ 
lation  software  have  improved,  and  with 
Windows  applications  flooding  the  market, 
the  issue  has  turned  more  to  how  to  run 
those  applications. 

Literal  emulation  is  still  the 
most  common  approach,  with  a 
“virtual  DOS  machine”  being  cre¬ 
ated  in  software  for  the  applica¬ 
tion  to  run  on.  Such  emulation  is 
available  in  products  from  several 
companies,  including  Mountain 
View,  Cahf.-based  Insignia  Solu¬ 
tions,  Inc.  in  SoftPC,  as  well  as  sev¬ 
eral  Unix  workstation  and  soft¬ 
ware  vendors.  These  include 
SunSoft,  Inc.  in  Solaris,  Novell, 

Inc.  in  UnixWare  and  IBM  in  the 
RISC  System/6000’s  AIX. 

But  while  that  process  of  emu¬ 
lation  has  improved  with  ad¬ 
vances  in  hardware  and  software, 
it  still  has  some  limitations,  according  to 
users.  One  user  familiar  with  several  emu¬ 
lation  packages  said  implementations  of 
Insignia’s  SoftPC  vary  greatly  from  vendor 
to  vendor  and  graphics  performance  can 
be  slow.  “But  the  biggest  use  of  products 


like  SoftPC  is  for  those  people  who  need  to 
do  both  ‘real’  engineering  and  office  auto¬ 
mation  stuff,”  he  said.  He  added  that  users 
then  find  the  native  Unix  office  automation 
applications  to  be  of  lesser  quality  than 
their  DOS  and  Windows  counterparts.  For 
those  users,  the  trade-off  in  performance 
may  be  acceptable. 

However,  new  approaches  to 
running  PC  software,  particu¬ 
larly  Windows  packages,  on 
Unix  are  on  the  horizon.  Sun  Mi¬ 
crosystems,  Inc.  has  announced 
plans  for  the  Windows  Applica¬ 
tion  Binary  Interface  (WABI), 
which  would  allow  Windows  applications 
to  run  as  native  Unix  programs  by  “clon¬ 
ing”  the  Windows  application  program¬ 
ming  interface  (API)  on  Unix.  Meanwhile, 


Microsoft  has  partnered  with  Insignia  and 
granted  it  access  to  Windows  source  code, 
thereby  giving  the  company  an  advantage 
in  emulation  and  a  head  start  in  creating  a 
counter-WABI  technology. 

Such  API-level  emulation  would  be  faster 


than  standard  emulation,  as  it  would  no 
longer  require  the  creation  of  an  entire  vir¬ 
tual  PC.  Instead,  the  Windows  application 
would  make  API  calls  as  necessary,  and 
those  would  be  mapped  to  Unix  functions. 

Sun’s  approach  could  have  another  ef¬ 
fect  —  the  wresting  of  some  Windows  API 
control  from  Microsoft.  “If  [Sun]  can  re¬ 
create  the  API,  that  has  the  effect  of  weak¬ 
ening  Microsoft,”  said  Judith  Hurwitz, 
president  of  Hurwitz  Consulting  Group  in 
Newton,  Mass. 

In  theory,  once  Sun  had  sufficient  users 
running  Windows  applications  on  WABI, 
Microsoft  would  be  less  likely  to  change  the 
Windows  API  and  risk  offending  an  in¬ 
stalled  base  of  Windows  product  users. 

Indeed,  Sun  Chief  Executive  Officer 
Scott  McNealy  has  called  for  the  creation 
of  a  Public  Windows  Interface  that 
would  limit  some  of  Microsoft’s 
control  of  the  API. 

But  Sun  has  far  to  go,  according 
to  Microsoft.  Paul  Maritz,  senior 
vice  president  of  systems  soft¬ 
ware  at  Microsoft,  said  Sun  is  un¬ 
derestimating  the  size  of  its  en¬ 
deavor.  “It’s  expensive  to  be  in  the 
cloningbusiness,”  he  said. 

Even  if  Sun  or  Insignia  does  suc¬ 
ceed  in  allowing  Windows  soft¬ 
ware  to  run  on  Unix  at  the  API  lev¬ 
el,  that  is  not  the  end  of  the  story. 
While  the  approach  would  be  fast¬ 
er,  it  still  would  not  be  as  fast  as 
running  a  ground-up  Unix  appli¬ 
cation  on  Unix.  Nor  are  the  ap¬ 
proaches  likely  to  allow  Windows  applica¬ 
tions  to  take  full  advantage  of  all  the 
features  of  the  various  Unix  operating  sys¬ 
tems,  such  as  the  graphics  libraries  sup¬ 
plied  by  Silicon  Graphics,  Inc. 

Emulation  software,  page 47 


closer 

5 

DOS  on 
workstations 

Colliding  worlds 


DOS  and  Windows  emulation  packages  on  Unix  workstations 

ELIMINATE  THE  NEED  TO  HAVE  TWO  MACHINES  ON  A  USER’S  DESK. 

Several  approaches  exist: 


Company 

Product 

How  it  works 

Insignia 

Solutions,  Inc. 
(Microsoft) 

SoftPC  and 
SoftPC/Windows 

Available  on  several 
platforms,  including 
Hewlett-Packard  Co. 
and  Next,  Inc. 

IBM 

Personal 

Computer 

Simulator/6ooo 

Runs  DOS  Version  3.3 
programs  on  RISC 
System/6000 
workstations 

SunSoft,  Inc. 

VP/IX  and  *WABI 

Runs  DOS  applications 
under  Unix  System  V 

*Under  development 


VXM  Technologies  software  divvies 
up  chores  among  Unix,  NT  systems 


By  Elisabeth  Horwitt 

BOSTON 


A  small  software  vendor  has 
designed  a  package  to  facili¬ 
tate  the  distribution  of  down¬ 
sized  work  loads  across  a 
mixed  bag  of  Unix  and  Micro¬ 
soft  Corp.  Windows  NT  sys¬ 
tems. 

VXM  Technologies,  Inc.  re¬ 
cently  announced  Pax-2  Res, 
the  newest  member  of  its  Soft 
Mainframe  family  for  load-bal¬ 
ancing  batch  jobs  across  dis¬ 
tributed,  networked  systems. 

The  software  family,  which 


includes  VXM’s  existing  Balans 
product,  can  automatically  al¬ 
locate  jobs  to  CPUs  sitting  idle 
on  a  network  or  balance  the 
workload  across  a  group  of  net¬ 
worked  servers,  said  VXM 
President  Franco  Vitaliano. 

Focus  on  fairness 

Pax-2  Res  implements  these  ca¬ 
pabilities  so  all  job  requests 
are  sent  to  a  centralized  server, 
which  matches  requests  with 
available  resources  and  en¬ 
forces  fairness.  This  procedure 
prevents  one  user  from  hog¬ 
ging  all  CPU  resources  with  one 


huge  job,  Vitaliano  said. 

The  centralized  administra¬ 
tion  feature  makes  Pax-2  Res 
particularly  suitable  for  com¬ 
panies  that  are  downsizing  ap¬ 
plications  from  mainframes, 
Vitaliano  said. 

Such  companies  will  likely 
want  to  “know  where  the 
scheduler  is  and  where  each  re¬ 
source  is”  for  security  and  ad¬ 
ministrative  purposes,  he  said. 
“They  may  not  like  the  idea  of 
having  jobs  anywhere  and  ev¬ 
erywhere.” 

Previous  VXM  products  dis¬ 
tributed  scheduling  tasks 
across  multiple  systems. 

These  environments  need 
not  be  modified  to  support  Pax- 
2  Res. 

Pax-2  Res  reportedly  can  al¬ 


so  distribute  “make”  files, 
which  convert  source  code  to 
binary  format,  across  multiple 
machines.  This  cuts  the  time  it 
takes  to  do  major  conversion 
jobs,  according  to  Vitaliano. 

Pax-2  Res  is  available  for  the 
following  platforms:  Sun  Micro¬ 
systems,  Inc.’s  Scalable  Pro¬ 
cessor  Architecture  SunOS 
4.1.X,  IBM’s  RISC  System/6000 
AIX  and  Silicon  Graphics,  Inc.’s 
Iris.  Versions  for  Hewlett-Pack¬ 
ard  Co.’s  HP/UX  and  Digital 
Equipment  Corp.’s  Alpha  run¬ 
ning  Windows  NT  are  due  soon. 
The  software  will  run  as  is  in 
these  environments. 

The  product  is  priced  at 
$6,900  for  a  50-client  node  li¬ 
cense  and  at  $9,500  for  an  un¬ 
limited  client  site  license. 


Computerworld  May  31, 1993  45 


1  )n  getting  a  lot  of  pressure  to  look  at  client/server. 
But,  frankly,  I’m  not  about  to  sacrifice  either  application 
quality  or  data  integrity  just  to  put  a  PC  on  everyone’s  desk. 
There ’s  got  to  be  a  better  way.  ” 

There  is.  PowerBuilder  lets  you  build  a  fully  scal¬ 
able  client/server 
platform,  mixing 
and  matching 
workstations,  PCs, 
and  mainframe, 
mini,  and  LAN- 
based  servers  to 
put  the  power 
where  you  need  it 
—  whether  for  big 
mission-critical 
applications  or 
small,  single-user 
programs.  It  sup¬ 
ports  DB2  on  a 
mainframe,  XDB 
on  a  PC  and  any¬ 
thing  in  between. 

Although  dis¬ 
tributed  computing 
gives  users  greater 
data  access,  Power¬ 
Builder  lets  IS  keep 
control  of  the  client/ 
serve r  environment. 

Features  like  shared 
object  libraries  for  team  development  and  standard 
and  custom  objects  ensure  that  applications  through¬ 
out  your  organization  look  the  same,  run  the  same, 
and  meet  your  standards  for  quality. 


1  ’m  already  excited  about  the  possibilities  of  client/serv¬ 
er.  But  there  are  so  many  competing  solutions,  and  the  last 
thing  I  want  is  to  get  dead-ended  by  someone’s  proprietary 
framexvork.  ” 

PowerBuilder  is  the  only  client/ server  tool  that  pro¬ 
vides  a  truly  open 
framework.  Our 
Client/ server  Open 
Development 
Environment 
(CODE)  delivers 
everything  you  want 
and  need  from  this 
platform:  interoper¬ 
ability,  scalability, 
adaptability  and 
affordability. 

PowerBuilder 
lets  you  choose  your 
database  manage¬ 
ment  and  network 
operating  systems  as 
well  as  CASE  tools, 
version-control 
tools,  spreadsheets, 
and  much  more. 

You  can  even 
change  your  systems 
as  your  business 
grows  —  without  the 
cost  and  headache 
of  rewriting  your  applications.  It’s  perfect  for  any  size 
project,  small  to  enterprise-wide. 

Find  out  why  more  than  10,000  developers  are 
getting  the  most  out  of  PowerBuilder.  Call  today. 


For  Everyone 
Already 

Convinced  About 
Client/Server. 


Workgroup  Computing 


Client/server 

Server  makers  pushing 
mainframers  to  downsize 


By  Kim  S.  Nash 


Server  makers  hope  to  entice  wary  main¬ 
frame  users  to  downsize  applications  to 
networked  servers  by  building  in  systems 
administration  and  other  management 
features  common  in  the  big  iron  world. 

New  machines  from  Wyse  Technology, 
Inc.  and  AuspexSystems,  Inc.,  for  example, 
sport  improved  on-line  backup,  capacity 
planning  capabilities  and  other  basics  for 
moving  large  amounts  of  data  to  many  us¬ 
ers. 

Observers  —  and  even  vendors  —  ac¬ 
knowledge  that  downsizing  will  not  take 
hold  in  most  shops  until  mainframe  users 
are  comfortable  with  the  fact  that  systems 
management  and  other  utilities  to  which 
they  are  accustomed  will  be  ready  for 
prime  time  in  a  client/server  environment. 


Sales  across  the  server  arena  may  have 
fallen  short  of  expectations  set  a  few  years 
ago  because  potential  users  have  been  cau¬ 
tious  about  wholesale  downsizing  proj¬ 
ects,  they  said. 

“Customers  don’t  want  to  move  [applica- 

Preferably  Pentium 

Plymouth,  Minn. -based  Tricord  Systems,  Inc.  is 
due  to  announces  line  of  servers  running  Intel 
Corp.’s  Pentium  processor  this  month,  according 
to  Mark  Garver,  vice  president  of  corporate 
strategies.  The  PowerFrame  ES5000  enterprise 
server,  announced  last  month,  rounds  out  the 
company’s  high-end  line.  T ricord  is  expected  to 
receive  “at  least  100”  Pentium  chips  from  Intel 
this  quarter  and  an  undetermined  number  in  the 
fourth  quarter,  Garver  said. 


tions  off  a  mainframe]  unless  they  know 
they  will  still  have  strong  data  manage¬ 
ment,”  said  Dave  Becker,  manager  of  serv¬ 
er  product  marketing'at  Wyse. 

Even  at  sites  where  client/server  archi¬ 
tectures  live,  users  have  often  elected  to 
use  off-the-shelf  distributed  applications 
that  can  accommodate  mainframes  as 
servers,  such  as  human  resources  pro¬ 
grams  from  PeopleSoft,  Inc.  and  Dun  & 
Bradstreet  Software  [CW,  May  24]. 

To  address  users’  concerns  about  the  re¬ 
liability  and  strength  of  servers  as  anchors 
for  large  distributed  applications,  Wyse, 
for  example,  recently  built  several  security 
features  typically  found  on  multiprocess¬ 
ing  servers  into  its  new  single-processor 
Decision  486SE  model.  Decision  486SE  in¬ 
cludes  password-protected  booting  and 
chassis  locks,  the  San  Jose,  Calif.,  compa¬ 
ny  said. 

On  the  high  end,  Auspex’s  NS  6000  Net- 
Server  lets  users  dedicate  different  CPUs 
for  various  functions.  For  example,  the  sys¬ 
tem  supports  up  to  four  Ethernet  proces¬ 
sors,  two  file  servers  and  three  storage  pro¬ 
cessors.  Auspex,  in  Santa  Clara,  Calif., 
plans  to  deliver  the  NS  6000  late  this  year. 


Server  highlights 


Auspex’s  NS  6000  NetServer 

•Certified  for  Oracle  Corp.’s 
Oraci  e  6  and  Oracle  7  databases. 
•Runs  SunSoft,  Inc.’s  Solaris 
OPERATING  SYSTEM. 

•Base  price  is  $139,900,  which  in¬ 
cludes  SYSTEM  SOFTWARE  AND  ADMIN¬ 
ISTRATION,  CAPACITY  PLANNING,  MEMO¬ 
RY  RATIONING  AND  BACKUP  UTILITIES, 
AMONG  OTHERS. 

•NS  5500  and  NS  3000  users  can 
UPGRADE  TO  THE  NEW  BOX  FOR  $20,000, 
PLUSTRADE-IN. 


Wyse’s  Decision  486SE 

•Single-processor  machine  that 

ROUNDS  OUT  THE  COMPANY’S  LOW  END. 

•Runs  Novell,  Inc.’s  NetWare, 
UnixWare  andThe  Santa  Cruz 
Operation’s  SCO  Unix. 

•Prices  range  from  $2,669 to 
$3,949,  but  actual  prices  may 

VARYAS  RESELLERS  ADD  SOFTWARE  AND 
HARDWARE  FUNCTIONS. 


Emulation  software 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  45 

For  that  to  occur,  applications  will  have  to  be 
built  not  to  be  emulated  but  to  actually  be  port¬ 
ed  to  various  platforms,  according  to  Jeff  El- 
pern,  vice  president  of  sales  and  marketing  at 
Machine  Independent  Software  Corp.  in  San 
Francisco.  Elpern’s  company  is  developing  a 
code  library  for  Windows  developers  that  will 
allow  them  to  write  Windows  code,  then  recom¬ 
pile  it  to  run  on  Unix  with  little  or  no  perfor¬ 
mance  loss,  letting  the  application  compete  on 


an  equal  footing  with  native  Unix  programs. 

Elpern  said  this  strategy  will  not  allow  cur¬ 
rent  Windows  applications  to  run  unmodified 
on  Unix,  but  he  noted  that  several  vendors,  in¬ 
cluding  Knowledge  Ware,  Inc.,  are  beginning  to 
employ  cross-platform  development  strategies 
to  save  time  and  money  when  creating  software 
for  multiple  environments. 

Also,  Elpern  said,  his  company  will  be  far 
from  alone  in  the  arena.  Eventually,  most  soft¬ 
ware  vendors  will  implement  cross-platform 
development  of  some  kind  to  stay  competitive. 
“We  think  everybody  will  pursue  a  strategy  in 
this  category,”  he  said.  “These  technologies 
will  kill  all  U nix-only  applications.” 


No  substitutes  for  DOS 


While  users  said  the  prospect  of  run¬ 
ning  Windows  applications  faster 
on  their  Unix  workstations  was  ap¬ 
pealing,  theypredicted  that  Sun’s 
forthcoming  WABI  product  would 
not  reduce  the  need  for  DOS  emulation. 

“We  are  anxiously  anticipating  WABI,” 
said  Harry  Perrin,  vice  president  of  invest¬ 
ment  systems  at  the  Teachers  Insurance  An¬ 
nuity  Association  in  New  York.  “If  it  per¬ 
forms  as  advertised,  we’re  very  interested 
in  using  it.” 

Perrin  said  WABI  is  appealing  because  it 
was  designed  to  let  users  run  the  latest  re¬ 
leases  of  mainstream  Windows  programs, 
such  as  Lotus  Development  Corp.’s  1-2-3, 
without  havingto  wait  for  a  Unix  port,  which 
can  take  up  to  two  years. 

But,  Perrin  said,  his  unit  needs  to  run  sev¬ 
eral  DOS  applications  for  which  there  are  no 
Unix  equivalents,  such  as  Software  Publish¬ 
ing  Corp.’s  Harvard  Graphics  and  Lotus’ 
Freelance,  asweU  as  commercial  real  estate 
applications  that  do  not  have  enough  mass 
market  appeal  to  merit  a  Unix  port. 

To  run  these  applications.  Teachers  In¬ 
surance  has  roughly  120  licenses  for  Insig¬ 


nia’s  SoftPC  DOS  emulation  software.  Perrin 
said  his  unit  was  one  of  the  first  beta-test  us¬ 
ers  of  SoftPC  and  has  been  using  it  for  more 
than  two  years  with  great  success. 

Perrin  said  he  has  yet  to  find  a  DOS  appli¬ 
cation  that  cannot  run  on  Unix  via  SoftPC. 

The  only  real  complaint  that  users  at  his 
unit  have  voiced,  Perrin  said,  was  that 
graphics-intensive  applications  tend  to  run 
too  slowly.  To  solve  this  problem,  Perrin  up¬ 
graded  those  users  who  needed  to  run  Free¬ 
lance  often  to  SPARCstation  2s. 

Perrin  is  also  evaluating  Sun’s  version  of 
SoftPC,  called  SunPC,  which  dramatically 
increases  the  performance  of  DOS  applica¬ 
tions  when  paired  with  Sun’s  Intel  Corp. 
1486-based  Sbus  accelerator  board.  Howev¬ 
er,  while  the  board  offers  great  performance 
for  a  power  user,  Perrin  said  he  does  not  an¬ 
ticipate  “buying  more  than  a  handful  of 
them  due  to  their  significant  expense.” 

While  Teachers  Insurance  is  happy  over¬ 
all  with  the  performance  of  SoftPC,  Perrin 
said  he  would  like  to  be  able  to  log  on  to  No¬ 
vell  NetWare  servers  through  a  DOS  window 
on  a  Unix  workstation. 

— Stephen  P.  Klett  Jr 


Gillin 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  45 

ing  stuff  out  j ust  to  achieve  scala¬ 
bility. 

•  Novell  will  pull  out  all  the  stops  to 
defend  its  position  in  LAN  servers, 
and  it  will  have  massive  industry 
support  in  doing  so.  Microsoft 
hopes  to  feast  on  the  base  of  Net¬ 
Ware  v3.  1 1  with  its  Advanced  Serv¬ 
er  version  of  NT,  which  will  boast 
advanced  security  and  auditing 
features,  TCP/IP  connectivity  and 
available  SNA  services. 

Furthermore,  Microsoft  claimed 
the  base  version  of  NT  will  have 
more  networking  built  into  it  than 
NetWare  v3.1 1 .  That  sounds  pretty 
attractive,  but  running  up  the 
steep  slope  of  Novell  market  share 
will  require  more  than  just  snazzy 
products.  NetWare  is  nearly  as  en¬ 
trenched  in  corporate  America  as 
DOS/Windows,  and  Novell  has  a  lot 
more  experience  dealingwith  the 
networking  needs  of  corporate  IS 
managers. 

Don’t  forget  Novell’s  all-Ameri¬ 
can  image.  In  an  industry  that  sees 
Microsoft’s  quest  for  dominance 
as  an  unnervingthrowbackto 
IBM’s  reign  in  the  1970s,  Novell  is 
winning  a  lot  of  fans  just  for  being 
anti-Microsoft.  That  won’t  stop  de¬ 
velopers  from  writing  for  Windows 
NT  if  they  can  make  money  at  it, 
but  in  an  either/or  decision,  the 
question  of  which  they’re  most 
comfortable  with  will. 

For  NT  Advanced  Server  to  dis¬ 
place  NetWare,  it  must  demon¬ 
strate  complete  compatibility  with 
the  Novell  product  while  offering 
significant  added  value.  Given  that 
NetWare  is  a  movingtarget  and  No¬ 
vell  has  its  own  enterprisewide 


irons  in  the  fire,  that’s  going  to  be 
a  tricky  task  for  Microsoft.  Not  im¬ 
possible,  but  difficult. 

•  Microsoft  still  has  a  lot  of  work  to 
do  to  gain  support  from  the  major 
workstation  and  data  center  hard¬ 
ware  vendors.  Those  vendors  that 
have  endorsed  NT  or  are  likely  to 
endorse  it — such  as  DEC,  Sequent 
and  HP  —  are  hedging  their  bets 
by  off-setting'Unix  strategies.  Sun 
and  IBM  will  give  in  only  if  their 
backs  are  to  the  wall.  So  the  mid¬ 
range  and  large  systems  markets 
are  no  slam  dunk  for  Microsoft. 

Meanwhile,  theUnix  community 
is  at  last  coming  together.  Micro¬ 
soft  executives  dismiss  the  Com¬ 
mon  Open  Software  Environment 
initiative  as  being  too  little  too 
late,  but  don’t  be  so  sure.  Unix  has 
lots  of  loyal  adherents  and  a  large 
installed  base.  Novell’s  purchase 
of  Unix  System  Laboratories  has 
brought  needed  stability  to  the 
Unix  community.  This  market  will 
take  years  to  settle  down,  testing 
every  ounce  of  Microsoft’s  vaunted 
patience. 

NT  will  be  a  huge  success  on  the 
high-end  Intel  desktop  and  will 
move  quickly  into  the  mainstream 
during  the  next  three  years  as 
hardware  price/performance  im¬ 
proves.  If  the  code  is  clean  and  the 
applications  come,  it  will  relegate 
OS/2  to  the  low-end  desktop  and 
halt  any  momentum  Unix  has  built 
in  the  Intel  market.  It’ll  probably 
hold  its  own  in  the  RISC  worksta¬ 
tion  business,  too. 

But  get  ready  for  a  wild  ride  in 
the  enterprise  where  all  bets  are 
off  and  the  only  sure  thing  is  that 
users  will  have  more  choices  than 
ever  by  this  time  next  year. 


Gillin  is  Computer  world's  executive 
editor.  His  MCI  Mail  address  is  575-4120. 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  47 


Mm 


any  of  today's  most  competitive  organizations  are 
Anri  oniu  ono  rnmnanv  ran  heln  vnn  arhieve  true 

fe i  ■  '  '  I .  y  . ■:  :: 

•  -  ,  ' 


de  computer  networking. 


iw$mm 


o  use  and  manage.  We! 

'M  ■  mm 


m 


,t!or  many  pf  the  wprldM  lap 


Mi&ti 

ggpr&S 


U.‘.\ 


I 


Internetworking 


New  products,  53 


Services 
Net  Management 


Enterprise  Networking 


E-mail  from  the  top  down 


E-mail  designed  for  both  mainframes  and  LANs  eases  user  frustrations 


By  Lynda  Radosevich 


■  While  electronic  mail  for  networked  PCs  is 
the  rage,  using  it  on  an  enterprise  level  poses 
some  daunting  managerial  challenges  for 
mixed  mainframe/local-area  network  shops. 

These  include  making  sure  the  user  directo¬ 
ries  on  different  networks  are  available  to  each 
population  of  users  and  keepingthe  directories 
updated.  In  addition,  information  systems  de¬ 
partments  have  to  drum  up  the  expertise  re¬ 
quired  to  maintain  different  E-mail  systems 
and  the  gateways  that  connect  LAN-  and  host- 
based  mail. 

Some  companies  have  circumvented  these 
headaches  with  a  top-down  approach,  which  in¬ 
volves  implementing  an  E-mail  system  that 
runs  on  large  systems  and  desktop  computers 
alike. 

For  example,  some  are  using  a  mainframe- 
based  E-mail  package  from  Fischer  Interna¬ 
tional  Systems  Corp.  in  Naples,  Fla.  Called 
Emc2/TA0,  or  Electronic  Mail  Communication 
Center/Totally  Automated  Office,  the  system 
houses  the  E-mail  server  on  an  IBM  mainframe 
or  Application  System/400  and  supports  clients 
on  mainframes,  AS/400s  or  PCs. 

Mix  and  match 

Users  can  adopt  any  combination  of  client  and 
server  platforms,  a  mix-and-match  configura¬ 
tion  that  enticed  some  users,  including  Con¬ 
solidated  Rail  Corp.  (Conrail)  and  Super  Value, 
Inc.,  away  from  LAN-based  E-mail. 

For  example,  Rich  Kenney,  a  self-proclaimed 
PC  bigot  and  manager  of  office  systems  at  Con- 
rail  in  Philadelphia,  was  charged  last  year  with 
updatinga  homegrown  E-mail  system  based  on 
IBM’s  CICS  and  designing  a  method  to  move 
electronic  documents  around  the  company. 
CICS  is  a  transaction-oriented  database/data 
communications  system  for  mainframes. 


Splitting 

combination 


Fischer’s  Emc2/TA0 
splits  E-mail  into  server 
and  client  software. 
Server  software  runs 
on  IBM  mainframes 
(MVS,  VMandVSE), 
the  AS/400  or 
OS/2-based  PCs.  Client 
software  runs  on 
mainframe  platforms 
(underCICS.CMSand 
VTAM),  the  AS/400  and 
MS-DOS- or 
Windows-based  PCs. 
Client  software  for 
Apple  System  7, 
various  Unix  platforms 
and  OS/2  are  expected 
to  ship  next  quarter, 
accordingto  Fischer. 


In  the  midst  of  this  project,  Conrail,  which 
has  25,000  employees  and  roughly  7,000  E-mail 
users,  was  integrating  LANs  into  its  company¬ 
wide  computing  environment.  At  the  time,  “I 
wasn’t  impressed  with  mainframe  companies’ 
grasp  of  PC  concepts,”  Kenney  said. 

Goodbye  to  gateways 

However,  after  looking  at  Lotus  Development 
Corp.’s  Cc:Mail  and  Microsoft  Corp.’s  LAN- 
based  package,  Kenney  and  a  company  adviso¬ 
ry  group  chose  Fischer’s  Emc2/TAO  because  it 
allows  the  railway’s  PC  networks  running  No¬ 
vell,  Inc.  NetWare  to  exchange  mail  with  the 
IBM  3090-600  mainframe  without  gateways. 
More  importantly,  resources  such  as  the  direc¬ 
tory  database  and  fax  gateways  are  central¬ 
ized  on  the  mainframe  but  are  accessible  to  all 
platforms,  Kenney  said. 

“This  helps  keep  the  architecture  simple  and 
our  administrative  costs  down,”  he  noted.  Ad¬ 
ditionally,  the  Fischer  software  included  calen¬ 
daring  and  scheduling  across  the  different 
hardware  platforms. 

The  biggest  challenge  in  installing  the 
Fischer  system  was  replicating  specialized 
functions,  such  as  customized  print  com¬ 
mands,  that  had  been  developed  in-house,  Ken¬ 
ney  said. 

Now  the  railroad  is  in  the  process  of  upgrad- 
ingPCs  to  the  Microsoft  Windows  operatingen- 
vironment.  Kenney  said  the  Windows-based 
Emc2/TAO  client  software  is  helping  employees 
make  the  transition  to  Windows’  graphical  in¬ 
terface  because  “the  application  is  familiar 
and  some  of  the  keystrokes  are  the  same.” 

However,  the  mainframe  might  not  host  the 
company’s  E-mail  system  indefinitely.  “We’re 
evaluating  every  piece  of  the  IS  structure.  The 
mainframe  will  be  the  E-mail  server  and  host 
the  directory  database  now,  but  that  may 
change  over  time,”  Kenney  said. 

For  Super  Value,  a  grocery  wholesaler  based 


in  Minneapolis,  the  objective  of  installinga  new 
E-mail  system  last  year  was  to  supplement 
electronic  data  interchange  systems  and  allow 
departments  to  send  mail  and  faxes  both  inter¬ 
nally  and  to  other  organizations. 

Super  Value  has  35  distribution  centers  that 
service  5,000  supermarkets  throughout  the 
country.  The  grocer  picked  Fischer’s  main¬ 
frame-based  E-mail  server  largely  because  all 
the  employees  already  had  3270  terminals  or 


■  .  '  - 

Conrail’s  mainframe/LAN  E-Mail  system 


A  centralized  directory  database  and  fax  gateway  are 
available  to  mail  users  on  large  and  small  platforms 


CW  Chart:  Nancy  Kowal 


PC  emulation  software.  This  meant  the  compa¬ 
ny  could  launch  its  new  E-mail  system  without 
shelling  out  money  for  new  hardware  plat¬ 
forms. 

“We  got  into  strategic  E-mail  applications  for 
around  $40,000,”  said  Bernie  Grutsch,  director 
of  buying  systems  and  inventory  control.  “Plus 
we  liked  the  single  directory”  feature. 
Emc2/TAO  also  has  LAN-like  features  such  as 
spell-checking  and  file  foldering.  Additionally, 
it  has  plug-in  fax  functionality,  Grutsch  said. 

Super  Value  is  using  the  mail  system  for  crit¬ 
ical  applications  such  as  automatically  updat¬ 
ing  700  remote  buyers  each  day  on  pricing  for 
commodities.  Next,  the  wholesaler  plans  to  add 
work-flow  capabilities  to  E-mail  “for  all  those 
forms  that  require  sequential  review,”  Grutsch 
added.  The  company  is  evaluating  work-flow 
software  from  Fischer. 

“Originally,  I  saw  mainframe  E-mail  as  a 
short-term  fix,  but  now  I  don’t  know,”  said 
Grutsch,  who  added  that  he  is  surprised  at  the 
options  available  on  the  mainframe  server  plat¬ 
form. 


Dropped  Series/1 
users  turn  to  third 
parties  to  fill  void 


By  Elisabeth  Horwitt 


When  IBM  quit  manufacturing  and 
supporting  its  Series/1  communi¬ 
cations  controller,  the  company 
largely  left  it  up  to  users  to  figure 
out  a  migration  path  to  another 
platform. 

The  main  challenge  facing  users 
in  this  endeavor  is  that  the  Se¬ 
ries/1  has  no  real  equivalent  on  the 
market  today  —  from  IBM  or  any 


other  company,  said  Steve  J.  Jack- 
owski,  president  of  systems  inte¬ 
grator  and  software  vendor  Syzy- 
gy  Communications,  Inc.  in  Scotts 
Valley,  Calif. 

This  is  because  IBM  designed 
the  Series/1  as  a  specialized  com¬ 
puter  system  equally  suitable  for 
reading  plant  floor  process  instru¬ 
mentation  data,  controlling  con¬ 
veyor  lines  or  acting  as  a  commu¬ 
nications  controller  for  automated 


teller  machines.  But  today’s  users 
are  not  lookingfor  yet  another  pro¬ 
prietary  box,  no  matter  how  spe¬ 
cialized,  to  replace  the  Series/1. 

“Even  if  IBM  had  said,  ‘Here’s  a 
replacement  [hardware  plat¬ 
form],’  people  might  not  have 
bought  it ... .  They  wanted  a  more 
open  system,”  said  Barry  Pearl- 
man,  a  vice  president  at  VisaNet 
Engineering,  a  division  of  Visa  In¬ 
ternational,  Inc.  in  San  Francisco. 

Helping  hand 

Fortunately,  most  corporations 
can  now  find  a  third-party  product 
or  service  to  meet  their  Series/1 
migration  needs.  Participating 
vendors  include  Cipher  Systems, 
Inc.  in  North  Plains,  Ore.,  Comput¬ 
er  Information  Enterprises  in  Tus- 


R.I.P. 


IBM  shipped  more  than 
100,000  Series/i 
machines  worldwide 
between  1976  and  July 
1991,  when  it  stopped 
manufacturing  the 
product.  IBM  estimates 
that  approximately 
half  ofthose  are  still 
installed. 


tin,  Calif.,  and  DataTrend,  Inc.  in 
Eden  Prairie,  Minn. 

Companies’  needs  vary  widely, 
dependingon  the  complexity  of  ap¬ 
plications  running  on  the  commu¬ 
nications  processors,  the  Series/1 
operating  system  in  use  and  finan¬ 
cial  and  programmingresources. 

In  some  ways,  the  simplest 
strategy  is  to  rewrite  applications 
to  the  platform  of  choice,  which  is 
what  Visa  did.  Luckily,  the  compa¬ 
ny  was  already  using  both  Se- 
ries/ls  and  IBM  PC  ATs  for  access 
points  that  enable  banks  and  other 
customers  to  reach  VisaNet  settle¬ 
ment  and  authorization  services. 
Pearlman  said.  The  company  just 
moved  to  IBM  Personal  System/2s. 

“We’ve  been  very  fortunate” 
Series/1,  page  52 


Computerworld  May  31, 1993  49 


For  minds  that  cover  a  lot  of  ground,  we  present  a  more 

advanced  way  to  travel. The  new  IBM  ThinkPad"  720s.  Note¬ 
books  so  graceful,  their  sleek  design  and  slim  profile  almost  dely 
their  sheer  might.  Memory  is  expandable  to  16MB.  Removable 
hard  disks  up  to  160MB  are  available.  And  rocket-last  IBM 
486SLC2  50/25  MHz  processors  speed  things  along,  so  you 
work  in  a  virtually  wait-less  state. 


Introducing 


ThinkPad 

720 


Everything  about  the  720  and  720C  was  designed  to  close 
the  chasm  between  mind  and  machine.  The  rubberized  red  but¬ 
ton  on  the  keyboard  is  the  exclusive  TrackPoint™  II  pointing 
device.  Just  a  touch  sends  the  cursor  where  you  want  it  to  go.  The 
720C  draws  you  in  even  more  with  a  dazzling  10.4"  color,  active - 
matrix,  TFT  display — the  largest  color  notebook  display  out  there. 

Other  forward-thinking  features  include  the  new  generation 


“For  information  regarding  IBM  s  limited  warranty  and  money  back  guarantee,  please  call  1  800  772-2227.  Copies  of  IBM's  statement  of 
limited  warranty  and  money  back  guarantee  are  available  on  reguest  International  traveler's  warranty  service  available  in  countries 
where  ThinkPad  is  sold  by  IBM  and  IBM  Business  Partners.  "ThinkPad  EasyServ  available  in  US  only.  f'Thank  You's  from  ThinkPad" 
booklets  available  in  U  S.  only  Thank  You's  from  ThinkPad"  are  valid  5/4/93  through  4/30/94.  IBM,  ThinkPad,  HelpWare  and  HelpCenter 
are  registered  trademarks  and  ThinkPad  EasyServ  and  TrackPoint  are  trademarks  ot  International  Business  Machines  Corporation 
©1993  IBM  Corp. 


File  Edit  Mode  Filter  Effects 


3]  Photo  -  LAUNCHPAD.  IMG 


11,11 

Take  adi'antngc  of 
PCMCIA  cards. 


j  of  PCMCIA  credit-card-size  adapters. 

"  Simply  slide  one  in  to  connect  via 

modem.  LAN  or  host  network.  A 
Port  Replicator  or  Expansion  Unit 
easily  adapts  your  ThinkPad  to  office- 
bound  environments.  And  besides 
delivering  long  battery  life, 
the  720s  even  have  the 
presence  of  mind  to 
shut  down  and  save 
your  work  when  die  battery  is  low. 

To  put  your  mind  at  ease,  there's  a 
three-year  international  travelers  warranty? 
optional  on-site  service  and  ThinkPad 
EasyServ™**—  the  most  convenient  service 
around.  Its  all  part  of  IBM  HelpWare' — a 
wide  range  of  service  and  support  that  also 
includes  around-the-clock  telephone  assistance 
and  a  30 -day  money  back  guarantee?  And  every 
ThinkPad  comes  with  “Thank  You  s  from  ThinkPad" — a  booklet 
packed  with  nearly  $4,000  in  discounts  on  a  host  of  valuable 
mobile  products  and  services.1 


ThinkPad 

720C 

720 

Processor 

486SLC2  50/25  MHz 

486SLC2  50/25  MHz 

Display 

10.4''  Active  Matrix 

256  Color  @  640x480 

9.5"  Monochrome 

64  Grayscale  Screen 

Battery  Life++ 

2.4-4. 8  Hours 

3.8-7.5  Hours 

PCMCIA  Support 
Release  2.01 

(1) Type  III  or 

(2)  Type  Ms 

(1) Type  III  or 

(2)  Type  lls 

Warranty 

3  Years  (International) 

3  Years  (International) 

++ Depending  on  usage  and  configuration. 


For  more  information  or  an  IBM  authorized  dealer  near 
you,  call  our  Personal  Systems  HelpCenter"5  at  1  800  772-2227  or 
TDD/ASCII  1  800  426-4238.  In  Canada, 
call  1  800  465-7999.  Thanks  to  the 
ThinkPad  720s,  choosing  the  ultimate 

notebook  is  hardly  rocket  science.  ZZZ . ZZ  7  “ 


Enterprise  Networking 


Series/!  users  turn  to  third  parties 


CON  FINITE  D  FROM  PAGE  49 


that  moving  over  to  PC  ATs  and  then  to 
PS/2s  caused  very  little  impact  to  the  net¬ 
work  or  the  host  systems,  Pearlman  said. 
“We  had  a  dual  configuration  for  reliabil¬ 
ity,  so  we  could  pop  in  a  PS/2,  make  sure 
it  was  working,  then  pop  out  the  Se¬ 
ries/1.” 

However,  this  strategy  is  not  feasible 
for  companies  whose  Series/1  s  run  large, 
complex  applications.  Payless  Drug 
Stores  in  Wilsonville,  Ore.,  for  example, 
“briefly  considered  rewriting  our  appli¬ 
cations,  but  we’re  talking  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  lines  of  code  and  umpteen 
thousands  of  dollars,”  said  Gary  Smith, 
a  systems  analyst. 

Payless  instead  hired  Cipher  Systems 
to  port  Series/1  applications  to  Intel 
Corp.  80286-  and  80386-based  PC  plat¬ 
forms,  using  an  enhanced  version  of 
Computer  Information  Enterprises’ 
Hummingbird.  Hummingbird  is  a  porta¬ 
ble  version  of  the  Series/1  operating  sys¬ 
tem,  EDX,  which  runs  on  standard  PC 
platforms,  including  IBM  PC  clones. 

Cipher  offers  HBX,  an  enhanced  ver¬ 
sion  of  Hummingbird  that  runs  on  Intel 
80386  and  I486  platforms,  as  well  as  on 
Micro  Channel  Architecture-based  PCs. 

Portable  EDX  versions  enable  users  to 
move  their  applications  to  standard  PC 
platforms  without  the  expense  of  code 
conversion  or  rewritingof  applications. 

However,  some  companies  may  avoid 
porting  operating  systems  because  it  re¬ 
quires  their  information  systems  depart¬ 
ments  to  continue  supporting  a  propri¬ 
etary  environment.  “Programmers  [for 
the  Series/1]  are  scarce,”  one  user  said. 

Also,  some  30%  of  Series/1  installa¬ 
tions  use  proprietary  operating  systems 
that  IBM  introduced  prior  to  EDX  and 
that  are  not  portable  to  standard  PC  plat- 


Series/1  uses 


Whatpeoplearedoingwith  their 

old  Series/1  s:/ 


•  Barry  Pearlman,  vice  president, 
VisaNet  Engineering  “They’re 
making  breakwaters  out  of  them; 
we’re  recycling  the  cabinets  to  re¬ 
package  PS/2s.  They  have  some 
value,  but  it’s  marginal,” 

•  Jeff  Schoff ,  manager  of  store  sys¬ 
tems,  Giant  Food,  Inc.:  “We’re  recy- 
cli  ng  some  in  ou  r  warehouses  for 
attendance  [tracking]  until  we 
catch  up”  to  those  sites  with  an  on- 
goingstrategy  to  convert  to 
RS/6000s  running  C. 

•Gary  Smith,  systems  analyst, 
Payless  Drugstores:  “Anyone  in 
the  market  for  a  boat  anchor? 


forms,  a  Cipher  spokesman  noted. 

For  such  companies,  DataTrend  offers 
two  options.  One  is  conversion  of  Event 
Driven  Language  (EDL),  the  proprietary 
Series/1  language,  to  C,  running  on  AIX. 
The  cost  is  $500  to  $5,000  per  CPU,  de- 
pendingon  the  complexity  and  size  of  the 


code.  The  service  takes  three  to  six 
months. 

“If  the  applications  are  doing  a  good 
job,  it’s  better  to  convert,  because  other¬ 
wise  you  have  to  retrain  people  on  pro¬ 
ducing  new  reports  and  screens,”  Data¬ 
Trend  President  Mark  Waldrep  said. 

A  slightly  less  expensive  migration  op¬ 
tion  from  DataTrend  is  having  the  vendor 
translate  only  the  “convertible”  aspects 
of  EDL  —  about  70%  to  80%  of  the  source 
code  —  and  leaving  it  up  to  internal  pro¬ 


grammers  to  handle  those  parts  of  the 
code  that  do  not  have  a  one-to-one  corre¬ 
lation  with  C. 

DataTrend  also  provides  software  that 
enables  an  IBM  RISC  System/6000  run¬ 
ning  AIX  or  an  IBM  PS/2  running  OS/2  to 
emulate  a  Series/1 .  This  option  is  less  ex¬ 
pensive  and  time-consuming  than  con¬ 
version  but  does  require  the  user  to  con¬ 
tinue  maintaining  the  Series/1  pro¬ 
prietary  programming  language  and  ap¬ 
plications  indefinitely. 


SynOptics  smoothly  intei 

Iso 


into  your  exi 


An  enterprise  network  is  one  of  your 
business’  strategic  assets.  And  with  the  constant 
arrival  of  new  network  technologies,  you  need  a 
partner  to  help  you  merge  and  manage  both 
the  old  and  the  new.  That  partner  is  SynOptics. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  intelligent 
hub  revolution,  SynOptics  has  smoothed  the 


iinviim  t  1 1 

SynOptics  ’  new  LattisCell ™ 
product  family  enables  you  to 
build  a  complete  A  TM  network, 
from  corporate  backbones  to 
desktop  connections. 


transition  to  new  network  technologies — from  network 
management,  to  the  first  multi-protocol  hubs  integrating 
Ethernet,  Token  Ring  and  FDDI  topologies. 

Now  SynOptics  takes  you  one  step  further,  with 


the  creation  of  a  cohesive  network  fabric — 
an  underlying  structure  that  connects  and 
manages  individual  technologies  through 
the  intelligent  hub.  It  provides  high-speed 
network  communications.  And  it’s  flexible 
enough  to  grow  as  your  network  does,  with¬ 
out  sacrificing  your  existing  investment. 
When  you  demand  new  Asynchronous  Transfer 


Mode  (ATM)  technology,  SynOptics  has  it.  LattisCell,™ 
our  second-generation  ATM  solution,  greatly  increases 
performance  both  on  the  backbone  and  on  the 


52  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Enterprise  Networking 


Electronic  data  interchange 


Sterling  Software,  Inc.  has  introduced 
the  Sterling  Commerce  Connection,  an 
electronic  commerce  product. 

The  product  offers  integrated  access 
to  a  variety  of  data  networking  services 
such  as  electronic  data  interchange 
(EDI)  transactions,  file  transfer,  elec¬ 


tronic-mail  messages  and  electronic  cat¬ 
alogs  and  libraries. 

Commerce  Connection  for  the  PC  is 
desktop  software  that  offers  EDI  and  full 
E-mail  and  library  sendee  capabilities. 
The  Commerce  Connection  E-Mail  Ser¬ 
vice  is  an  add-on  module  that  provides  in¬ 
terpersonal  messaging  services  such  as 
user-based  E-mail  administration,  ac¬ 
cess  to  other  public  E-mail  systems  and 
distribution  list  creation. 

An  EDI  PC  package  of  Commerce  Con¬ 


nection  costs  $2,000.  The  E-mail  sendee 
module  costs  $200. 

►  Sterl  Dig  Software 
4600 Lakehurst  Court 
Dublin,  Oh  io  4301 7 
(614)  793-7000 


Texas  Instruments,  Inc.  has  added  Desk¬ 
top  EDI  and  Unix  EDI  to  its  line  of  elec¬ 
tronic  data  interchange  (EDI)  products. 
The  standards-based  software  supports 
the  ANSIX12  standard  and  Un/EDIfact. 


Desktop  EDI  and  Unix  EDI  provide 
Gateway,  an  integrated  communications 
manager  that  supplies  unattended  auto¬ 
dial  capabilities  and  controls  linkage  to 
major  communications  protocols.  An 
EDI  Translator  that  converts  data  trans¬ 
mission  formats  into  computer  docu¬ 
ment  formats  and  vice  versa  is  provided, 
the  company  said. 

Desktop  EDI  prices  start  at  $4,000; 
Unix  EDI  prices  begin  at  $50,000. 

►  Texas  Instruments 
6550  Chase  Oaks  Blvd. 

Plano,  Texas  75023 
(214)575-2903 


rates  new  technologies 
ng  network. 


desktop.  Plus,  our  complete  family  of  LattisCell  products 
is  integrated  into  a  powerful  silicon  chip  set,  offering  you  a 
significant  cost  advantage. 

SynOptics  integrates  hardware  and  software,  deliver¬ 
ing  unparalleled  capabilities  to  manage  your  network  as  a 
single-system  solution.  Optivity™  network  management 
software  gives  you  the  visibility  to  control  connectivity, 
bridging  and  routing  functions  from  a  single  management 
station,  or  diagnose  problems  that  may  encompass  more 
than  one  element  of  the  network.  Working  with  SynOptics’ 
ATM  solutions,  Optivity  helps  you  manage,  monitor  and 


diagnose  problems  across  the  entire  network  fabric. 

So  if  you’re  building  or  managing  an  enterprise 
network,  get  the  wrinkles  out  with  our  integrated  solu¬ 
tions.  Call  1-800-PRO-NTWK  for  our  Solutions  Kit 
on  ATM,  including  our  just-released  white  paper  “The 
Roadmap  to  ATM  Networking.’’  Because  at  SynOptics, 
we  re  smoothing  the  way  for  the  network  of  the  future. 

^■SynOptics 

The  Network  Fabric  of  Computing 


Fax 


Incotel,  Inc.  has  introduced  an  IMX-en- 
try-level  fax  and  messaging  system. 

The  IMX-Elf  consists  of  hardware  and 
software  that  integrates  advanced  fax 
and  messaging  capabilities  throughout 
an  organization.  It  is  compatible  with 
Group  3  fax  machines.  Users  receive  an 
assigned  identification  code  and  pass¬ 
word  and  an  assigned  mailbox  to  receive 
faxes. 

Other  features  include  automatic  re¬ 
try  and  alternate  routing  and  the  ability 
to  specify  document  delivery  time. 

A  complete  turnkey  system  costs 
$75,000. 

► Incotel 
5  Penn  Plaza 
New  York, N.Y.  10001 
(212)594-8340 

Micro-to-host 


Digital  Communications  Associates,  Inc. 
(DCA)  has  announced  Version  2.1.2  of  the 
Irma  Workstation  for  Windows,  PC-to- 
mainframe  software. 

This  version  includes  client  support 
for  the  Systems  Network  Architecture 
local-area  network  gateway  from  Eicon 
Technology  Corp.  and  DCA’s  Select  Com¬ 
munications  Server. 

According  to  the  company,  it  also  en¬ 
ables  PCs  to  access  gateways  such  as  No¬ 
vell,  Inc.’s  NetWare  for  SAA  and  DCA’s  Ir- 
maLAN/EP. 

Any  Transmission  Control  Protocol/ 
Internet  Protocol  stack  that  conforms  to 
Microsoft  Corp.’s  Winsock  application 
programming  interface  can  be  support¬ 
ed,  the  company  said. 

Prices  range  from  $495  to  $19,495. 

^  Digital  Communications 
Associates 
1 000 Alderman  Drive 
Alpharetta,  Ga.  30202 
(404)  442-4000 


DO  YOU  SELL 
OUTSOURCING? 

Advertise  in  Computerworld’s 
Time  and  Services  Classifieds. 
They  work. 

800-343-6474 

x744 


l 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  S3 


While  other  mainframe  disk  companies 


tenance  features,  a  full  mirroring  option 


have  been  slow  to  deliver  high  data  avail¬ 
ability,  the  new  Symmetrix  5500  ICDA™ 
from  EiViC  now  brings  the  unbeatable 
combination  of  superior  performance  and 


and  the  ability  to  repair  or  upgrade  the 
system  with  no  loss  of  uptime,  the 
Symmetrix  5500  offers  the  highest  level 
of  data  availability  you  can  find  in  the 


Never  before  has 
a  disk  storage  system  this 
fast  been  so  available. 


continuous  operation  to 
high-end  mainframe  comput¬ 
ing.  What's  more,  EIVIC  is 
shipping  this  product  today. 

The  Symmetrix  5500  is 
the  latest  evolution  of  the  high 


market  today. 

And,  the  Symmetrix 
5500  incorporates  the  high 
performance,  small  footprint 
and  low  cost  of  ownership 
that  has  become  the  hallmark 


performance  Symmetrix  Series  of  Inte¬ 
grated  Cached  Disk  Arrays  (ICDA™),  and  was 
designed  for  I B IW  and  compatible  mainframe 

sites  that 
need  con¬ 
tinuous  op¬ 
eration  — 
24  hours 

a  day,  seven  days  a  week.  W ith  redun- 


of  the  Symmetrix  Series.  Over 
1,000  Symmetrix  installations  worldwide 
are  proof  of  the  widespread  acceptance  of 
Symmetrix  ICDA™  technology. 

To  inquire  about  Symmetrix  5500 
availability,  please  call  1 -800-424-EIV1C2, 
extension  LIW64C. 

EMC2 


The  Symmetrix  5500  is  part  of  an  entire  line  of  disk  storage 
systems  based  on  EMC's  Integrated  Cached  Disk  Arrays  |ICDA  “|. 


dant  hardware  components,  proactive  main- 


THE  STORAGE  ARCHITECTS 


Symmetrix 


r.icgrated  Cached  Disk  Arrays  and  ICDA  a  r  e*  t  radem  a  r  k  s  of  EMC  Corporation  IBM  is  a  trademark  of  International  Business  Machines  Corporation 


Hardware 


The  challenge  of  breaking  up 

LARGE  DATABASES,  57 


Mainframe  operating  systems 

Will  VM  2.1  draw  users? 


Utility  moves  ahead 
with  $10M  redesign 


By  Johanna  Ambrosio 

WHITE  PLAINS.  N.Y. 


IBM  hopes  the  newest  release  of  its  VM  operat¬ 
ing  system,  Release  2.1,  announced  earlier  this 
month,  will  entice  even  more  customers  to  con¬ 
vert  to  its  Extended  Storage  Architecture 
(ESA). 

Thus  far,  only  about  30%  of  the  VM  customer 
base  has  moved  to  ESA,  even  though  VM/ESA 
has  been  available  since  March  1991,  according 
to  Charles  Lickel,  VM  product  manager  at  IBM’s 
programming  laboratory  in  Endicott,  N.Y.  Be¬ 
fore  that,  there  were  three  VM  versions  on  the 
market. 

If  the  new  release  of 
VM/ESA  does  not  persuade 
customers,  the  fact  that  IBM 
will  stop  providing  service 
on  some  of  the  older  VM  ver¬ 
sions  in  December  may 
push  them  to  make  the 
move.  The  other  older  VM 
versions  go  out  of  service  in 
June  1994.  “By  the  end  of 
1993,  we  expect  50%  of  the 
customer  base  to  be  on 
ESA,”  Lickel  said. 

One  user  that  will  update 
VM  this  year  is  Kelly,  Doug¬ 
las  &  Co.,  a  $3  billion  food 
wholesaler  in  Vancouver, 

British  Columbia.  The  major  driving  factor, 
said  DougHirschfeld,  information  systems  vice 
president,  is  the  move  into  client/server  appli¬ 
cations  where  the  mainframe  will  function  as  a 
server  and  OS/2  workstations  as  the  clients. 

“Doing  program-to-program  communica¬ 
tions  with  VM  in  its  older  forms  is  very  com¬ 
plex,”  Hirschfeld  said.  “And  the  older  VM  ver¬ 
sions  will  no  longer  be  supported,  anyway.” 

Although  Kelly  Douglas  will  move  from 
VM/XA  2. 1  to  a  more  current  version  of  the  op¬ 
erating  system,  one  thing  the  company  will 
keep  is  its  tried-and-true  Professional  Office 
System  (Profs)/VM  application. 


“IBM  moved  everyone  to  OfficeVision/VM, 
but  that  has  a  maintenance  fee,  where  Profs 
didn’t,”  Hirschfeld  explained.  “So  I've  kept 
Profs,  and  it  runs  just  fine  under  VM/ESA.” 

Like  many  other  users,  Hirschfeld  runs  VM 
with  another  IBM  operating  system,  VSE.  Lick¬ 
el  said  about  30%  of  MVS  customers  also  run 
VM,  and  about  half  of  VSE  customers  run  VM. 

“VM  plays  in  two  areas:  as  a  ‘Hypervisor,’ 
where  you  can  test  a  new  release  of  MVS  or  VSE 
and  put  it  through  its  paces,  and  as  an  interac¬ 
tive  operating  system  for  applications  and  de¬ 
velopment,”  Lickel  said.  In  addition  to  office  ap¬ 
plications,  other  popular  VM  uses  include 
technical  design,  decision 
support  and  technical  com¬ 
puting. 

Since  making  the  move  to 
IBM’s  Client/Server  unit  in 
November  1992,  the  Endi¬ 
cott  laboratory  has  also  be¬ 
gun  working  directly  with 
customers.  About  two  doz¬ 
en  engagements  have  been 
completed  so  far,  said  lab¬ 
oratory  director  Leslie 
Wilkes,  which  include  help¬ 
ing  users  convert  to  newer 
versions  of  VM  and  doingcli- 
ent/server  projects.  About 
half  the  laboratory’s  900 
programmers  work  on  VM; 
the  other  hah  work  on  client/server  products. 

Despite  the  business,  which  Wilkes  charac¬ 
terized  as  “very  healthy,”  there  is  an  early- 
retirement  program  underway  at  the  Endicott 
laboratory  that  should  be  completed  by  July. 
Wilkes  said  she  is  not  sure  how  many  program¬ 
mers  will  retire. 

Still,  VM  is  a  $5  billion  business  annually 
when  hardware  and  software  are  added  up,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Gartner  Group,  Inc.  analyst  William 
Malik.  “Other  operating  systems  may  be  more 
exciting  because  they’re  newer,  but  that’s  like 
saying  my  heart  is  boring  because  it  keeps 
beating,”  Malik  said. 


Source:  International  Data  Corp.,  Framingham,  Mass. 


Virtual  extensions 


VM  Release  2.1  sports  an  easier  install  pro¬ 
gram,  which  speeds  implementation  of  the 
operating  system,  according  to  Charles 
Lickel,  VM  product  manager  at  IBM.  Other 
features  include  the  following: 

^  Support  for  “virtual”  disks,  allowingus- 
ers  to  store  data  in  short-term  memory.  The 
exact  amount  that  can  be  stored  depends  on 
the  amount  of  memory  the  customer’s  ma¬ 
chine  has,  Lickel  said. 

►  Enhancements  to  Shared  File  System  and 
multitaskingand  support  for  a  newrelease 
ofVSAM. 

►  Support  for  the  new  Model  9  disk  drives 


that  another  IBM  unit,  Adstar,  announced 
last  week,  plus  other  new  Adstar  products. 
p  Future  releases  of  VM  that  will  be  intro¬ 
duced  in  nine-month  cycles,  Lickel  said,  vs. 
the  year  or  longer  waits  to  which  customers 
have  been  accustomed. 
p  The  ability  of  VM  to  run  on  the  new  gener¬ 
ation  of  parallel-processing mainframes 
that  IBM  is  now  developing,  although  Lickel 
would  not  commit  to  a  ship  date. 
p  standards  within  VM,  includingPosix  and 
the  Open  Software  Foundation’s  Distributed 
Computing  Environment. 

— Johanna,  Ambrosio 


By  Rosemary  Cafasso 

SAN  FRANCISCO 


In  1992,  the  information  systems 
group  at  Pacific  Gas  Transmission 
(PGT),  a  subsidiary  of  Pacific  Gas 
&  Electric  Co.,  decided  to  cast 
aside  its  traditional 
IBM  Application  Sys¬ 
tem/400  host-based 
operation. 

Not  that  the  AS/400 
itself  was  going  away. 

It  was  just  that  the 
system  would  no  long¬ 
er  be  the  focus  of  the 
IS  group’s  mission. 

“The  management 
view  is  that  technol¬ 
ogy  could  and  should 
provide  flexibility  for 
new  organizational 
structures  and  proj¬ 
ect  teams,  as  opposed 
to  [providing]  a  mili¬ 
taristic,  hierarchical 
structure,”  said  Lar¬ 
ry  Levitt,  manager  of 
computer  services. 

PGT,  which  pro¬ 
vides  natural  gas  to 
customers  in  Califor¬ 
nia  and  the  Pacific 
Northwest,  is  nowin  the  early  stag¬ 
es  of  a  multiyear,  $10  million  re¬ 
engineering  plan  that  will  provide 
a  long  list  of  new  functions  —  such 
as  easier  data  access  and  work¬ 
group  technology  —  and  shed  the 
centralized  computing  function. 

Phase  one  is  under  way  now  and 
includes  linking  15  departmental 
local-area  networks  —  a  mix  of  No¬ 
vell,  Inc.  and  Banyan  Systems,  Inc. 
equipment.  PGT  is  working  with 
systems  integrator  International 


Micronet  Systems  to  create  one  en¬ 
terprise-wide  network  that  ties  to¬ 
gether  the  isolated  LANs. 

“This  is  the  roadway  system,” 
Levitt  said.  “You  have  to  have  this 
in  place  first.  The  goal  is  every  PC 
on  every  LAN  will  be  connected  to¬ 
gether.” 

Scheduled  for  com¬ 
pletion  at  the  end  of 
the  year,  phase  one  is 
expected  to  cost 
about  $3  million. 

Phase  two,  which 
began  just  a  few 
months  ago,  will  in¬ 
troduce  new  software 
tools,  most  of  which 
will  revolve  around  a 
new  data  architec¬ 
ture  that  Levitt’s 
team  established  late 
last  year.  Levitt  esti¬ 
mated  its  cost  at 
about  $5  million. 

Previously,  all  cor¬ 
porate  data  lived  in 
the  AS/400’s  data¬ 
base,  which  users 
typically  accessed 
from  their  PCs  via  ter¬ 
minal  emulation  soft¬ 
ware  packages. 

To  improve  that  approach,  Le¬ 
vitt’s  group  set  up  athree-layer  da¬ 
ta  architecture.  The  bottom  layer 
is  the  cofpdrate  AS/400  data,  or  in¬ 
formation  from  what  are  now 
called  legacy  systems.  A  middle 
layer  will  be  based  on  a  Sybase, 
Inc.  relational  database  manage¬ 
ment  system,  which  PGT  selected 
at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  It  will 
include  copies  of  the  legacy  data  in 
a  more  user-readable  format  that 
$10M  redesign,  page  5  7 


Pacific  Gas 
Transmission 

San  Francisco 


Goal:  To  move  away 
from  a  centralized 
computingstructureand 
provide  users  with 
easier  access  to 
information. 


Implementation:  A 

several-year,  three- 
phase,  $io  million 
project  that  links  LANs 
and  opens thehost 
database  to  users. 


NCR  tools  foster 
less  complex 
business  revamp 

By  Thomas  Hoffman 


NCR  Corp.  recently  unveiled  work- 
flow  process  management  soft¬ 
ware  that  analysts  said  is  well- 
suited  to  meet  customers’  inter¬ 
departmental  workgroup  needs. 

Processlt  is  a  group  of  software 
modules  compatible  with  Micro¬ 
soft  Corp.’s  Windows  and  built  to 
allow' end  users  to  design,  monitor 
and  re-engineer  their  business 


processes  throughout  their  enter¬ 
prises. 

Processlt  was  designed  to  allow 
users  to  alter  their  business  pro¬ 
cesses  without  making  any  chang¬ 
es  to  the  application  and  vice  ver¬ 
sa,  according  to  Daniel  L.  Beatty, 
assistant  vice  president  of  coordi¬ 
nation  technologies  at  NCR. 

He  said  the  work-flow'  package 
is  targeted  at  high-volume,  trans¬ 
action-intensive  industries,  such 
as  banking  and  insurance,  to  help 
streamline  mortgage  and  claims 
processing. 

NCR’s  timing  could  not  be  bet¬ 
ter,  analysts  said,  because  com¬ 
petitive  visual  work-flow  offerings 
NCR  tools,  page 57 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  55 


1  here’s  a  wide  spectrum 
of  UNIX  systems. 

But  only  an  expert  can  blend  them 
into  your  business  picture. 


It’s  all  what  you’d  expect  from  Unisys,  closely  with  customers  to  apply  technology 


Although  UNIX  systems  can  brighten 
the  outlook  at  almost  any  company,  there’s 
an  art  to  integrating  UNIX  with  the  many 
layers  of  an  enterprise  from  desktop  to 
mainframe.  An  art  mastered  by  Unisys. 

We  offer  unrivaled  experience  with 
commercial  UNIX  technology  and  an  indus¬ 
try-leading  ability  to  fully  integrate  UNIX 
with  existing  mainframe-based  networks. 
As  your  information  systems  and  business 
partner,  Unisys  will  help  identify  your  needs 
and  install  the  Unisys  UNIX  solutions  that 
are  right  for  your  computing  environment. 
And  because  our  UNIX  solutions  are  based 
on  Intel  x86  proces¬ 
sors,  we  can  leverage 
your  existing  invest¬ 
ment  in  PCs  and 
extend  interoperability  to  the  workgroup. 

What’s  more,  our  Communications 
Access  Processor  (CAP)  enables  your  SNA 
network  and  3270  terminals-for  the  first 
time-to  cost-effectively  access  UNIX,  in¬ 
troducing  the  advantages  of  UNIX  to  any 
environment.  Says  the  Aberdeen  Group: 
“We  recommend  that  CAP  technology  be 
evaluated  by  customers  attempting  to  con¬ 
tain  costs,  protect  existing  investments  in 
SNA  networks,  and  take  advantage  of  new 
UNIX  platform  opportunities.” 


with  our  forty-year  track  record  as  a  prime 
contractor  for  integrated  business 
solutions-and  a  reputation  for  working 

UNiSYS 

We  make  it  happen. 


not  for  its  own  sake  but  for  the  benefit  of 
their  organizations.  Organizations  such  as 
United  Airlines  and  the  California  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Motor  Vehicles. 

Call  us  at  1-800-874-8647,  ext.  183.  Ask 
how  Unisys  can  integrate  an  entire  palette 
of  UNIX  systems  to  create  maximum  results 
for  your  enterprise. 


Large  Systems 


$10M  redesign 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  55 

users  can  access  directly.  The  third  layer  is  the 
user  layer,  made  up  of  local  data  stored  on  PCs. 

The  pivotal  piece  of  the  new  architecture  is 
the  Sybase  DBMS,  which  PGT  is  running  on  a 
Compaq  Computer  Corp.  SystemPro  server.  It 
will  eventually  replace  the  legacy  database. 

In  the  meantime,  it  will  serve  as  the  “user 
view”  to  corporate  data  that  previously  was  dif¬ 
ficult  to  get  to.  New  applications  will  be  built  to 
work  with  the  Sybase  DBMS  as  well,  including 
an  executive  information  system. 

Currently,  the  team  is  reviewing  software 
from  Pilot  Software,  Inc.  and  Comshare,  Inc. 
and  said  it  expects  to  make  a  decision  in  the 
next  three  to  six  months. 

In  addition,  Levitt  has  selected  Powersoft 
Corp.’s  PowerBuilder  to  design  new  applica¬ 
tions.  While  other  tools  were  reviewed,  Power¬ 
Builder  “gave  the  best  overall  application  de¬ 
velopment  environment  and  relatively  robust 
access  to  the  SQL  DBMS,”  Levitt  said. 

At  the  same  time,  the  team  brought  in  Lotus 
Development  Corp.’s  Notes  to  assist  the  team 
orientation  for  which  the  company  is  striving. 
“We  are  using  it  to  support  project  members 
across  multiple  locations,  and  that’s  an  impor¬ 
tant  part  of  the  management  vision,”  Levitt 
said. 

Phase  three  is  scheduled  to  begin  next  year 
and  will  include  linking  PGT  with  customers, 
suppliers  and  partners.  Levitt  has  no  technical 
details  for  this  phase  yet. 


NCR  tools 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  55 

—  such  as  market  leader  FileNet  Corp.’s  Visual 
Workflow  —  will  not  begin  shipping  until  later 
this  year. 

“This  is  really  good  that  they  [NCR]  are  com¬ 
ing  out  with  this  now,  because  they’re  beating 
everyone  out,”  noted  Mary  Ann  Richardson,  a 
senior  analyst  at  Datapro  Information  Services 
Group,  a  Detran,  N.J.,  market  research  firm. 

Analysts  seemed  equally  impressed  with 
Processlt’s  automated  work-flow  capabilities. 
For  example,  most  work-flow  products  —  such 
as  those  marketed  by  FileNet,  ViewStar  Corp. 
and  Recognition  Equipment,  Inc.  —  require  an 
image  to  be  present  to  trigger  a  work-flow  pro¬ 
cedure.  Not  so  for  Processlt,  according  to  Scott 
McCready,  a  principal  at  IDC/Avante  Technol¬ 
ogy,  a  Framingham,  Mass.,  research  firm. 

McCready  said  he  was  smitten  with  several 
features  in  Processlt,  including  a  minute-by- 
minute  process  reporting  feature  that  enables 
users  to  check  on  the  status  and  efficiency  of  a 
particular  process  in  their  organization. 

That  is  an  essential  requirement  for  any 
work-flow  system,  noted  Krystyna  Filistowicz, 
a  director  at  Dataquest,  Inc.  in  San  Jose,  Calif. 
“The  important  element  of  work  flow  is  that  it 
provides  the  potential  to  re-engineer  processes 
within  the  organization  and  to  examine  the  pro¬ 
cess  to  see  how  efficient  it  is,”  she  said. 

The  work-flow  suite  was  designed  to  run  on 
any  Windows-based  PC  client  attached  to  an 
NCR  System  3000  Unix  server. 

A  typical  30-user  configuration  for  Processlt 
is  priced  at  about  $1,245  per  user  and  is  avail¬ 
able  now. 


Grappling  with  huge  databases 


By  Jean  S.  Bozman 


Some  might  call  it  the  database  that  ate  Chicago:  Closing  in 
on  2T  bytes,  it  grows  by  100G  bytes  per  month. 

And  Information  Resources,  Inc.’s  (ERI)  proprietary  data¬ 
base  of  supermarket  data,  fed  by  supermarket  scanners  at 
more  than  3,000  stores,  shows  no  signs  of  slowingdown.  The 
company  uses  the  consoli¬ 
dated  database  to  track  1 
million  products  nation¬ 
wide,  allowing  its  custom¬ 
ers,  includingfood  and  soap 
manufacturers,  to  pinpoint 
regional  buyingpatterns. 

But  information  systems 
managers  at  IRI,  as  else¬ 
where,  focus  on  ensuring 
that  the  database  does  not 
become  unwieldy.  That  is 
why  IRI’s  database  is  actu¬ 
ally  a  collection  of  10G-  to 
20G-byte  “slices”  that 
group  data  into  hundreds  of 
product  categories. 

The  $276  million  firm  us¬ 
es  artificial  intelligence 
programs  to  help  users  navigate  the  jumbo-size  database 
(see  chart). 

IS  managers  at  IRI  and  other  large  database  sites  said 
breaking  databases  into  manageable  pieces  is  a  major  chal¬ 
lenge  because  they  save  reams  of  transactional  data  in  a 
central  repository  for  end-user  query  and  analysis.  Howev¬ 
er,  they  must  balance  the  value  of  storing  consolidated  data 
in  a  huge  database  against  the  personnel  and  equipment 
as  sociated  with  operating  it . 

Large  mainframe  DB2  systems,  for  example,  use  multi- 
million-dollar  mainframes 
and  require  a  staff  of  hun¬ 
dreds  to  maintain  the  sys¬ 
tem  and  the  database. 

Databases  grow  extra 
large  when  they  are  fed  an 
increasing  amount  of  trans¬ 
actional  data.  The  largest 
databases  are  already 
breaking  records:  IRI’s 
homegrown  database  is 
about  1.7T  bytes;  Nynex 
Corp.’s  Market  Intelligence 
Tracking  and  Analysis  Sys¬ 
tem  (MITAS)  is  more  than 
400G  bytes;  and  United  Par¬ 
cel  Service,  Inc.’s  Delivery 
Information  Automated 
Lookup  System  (Dials)  is 
passing  1.5T  bytes  in  size. 

Most  databases  are  considered  large  when  they  become 
tens  of  gigabytes  in  size,  users  said. 

Large  database  size  complicates  daily  maintenance,  in¬ 
cluding  backups  and  recovery,  users  reported.  Global  reor¬ 
ganizations  of  the  database  are  usually  ruled  out,  as  are 
off-line  backups  that  would  take  the  system  down. 

In  many  cases,  database  administrators  prefer  to  add  da¬ 
tabase  tables  rather  than  change  the  setup  of  existing  ta¬ 
bles.  Some  create  database  slices  that  can  be  pieced  togeth¬ 
er  for  a  single  system  view.  Others  archive  aging  data  to 
keep  an  oversize  database  from  outgrowingits  host. 

Routinetasks  can  go  into  overtime  where  large  databases 
are  concerned.  Even  backing  up  a  7G-byte  Oracle  Corp.  da¬ 
tabase  can  take  several  hours,  noted  Michael  Higgins,  tech¬ 
nical  support  manager  at  Byer  California,  a  San  Francisco 
women’s  apparel  manufacturer. 

Higgins  said  he  plans  to  keep  his  Oracle  7  databases  at 
less  than  10G  bytes  and  to  run  several  on  a  cluster  of  Se¬ 
quent  Computer  Systems,  Inc.  Unix  systems  using  Oracle’s 


new  Parallel  Server  option. 

To  avoid  management  headaches,  IS  managers  at  the  Se¬ 
attle  Municipal  Courts  decided  to  remove  aging  data  from 
an  8G-byte  Informix  Software,  Inc.  database  running  on  a 
Sequent  computer.  Starting  this  spring,  aging  data  will  be 
purged  on  a  monthly  basis.  That  will  preserve  uptime  for 
more  than  200  on-line  users  in  the  court  system,  said  Brian 

Backus,  director  of  infor¬ 
mation  and  revenue  at  the 
municipal  courts. 

Does  all  the  trouble  of 
maintaining  a  jumbo  data¬ 
base  make  economic 
sense?  For  some  large  orga¬ 
nizations  it  does,  said  Don¬ 
ald  DePalma,  a  senior  ana¬ 
lyst  at  Forrester  Research, 
Inc.  in  Cambridge,  Mass. 

But  many  of  the  large  da¬ 
tabases  face  a  brave  new  fu¬ 
ture,  as  IS  managers  con¬ 
sider  whether  to  move  them 
—  or  parts  of  them — to  less 
costly  Unix  servers  or  par¬ 
allel  processors. 

“It  depends  how  large  the 
database  actually  is  and  if  it  exceeds  the  storage  and  ad¬ 
ministrative  capabilities  of  an  open  system,”  DePalma  said. 
Sites  that  can  justify  the  high  expense  “know  when  they’re 
making  money,  and  the  marketing  organizations  that  need 
this  data  tend  to  be  profitable.”  Over  time,  Unix  servers  will 
be  viewed  as  suitable  alternatives  to  mainframes  for  large 
mission-critical  databases,  DePalma  said. 

Meanwhile,  users  said  the  consolidation  of  many  months 
of  data  provides  a  rich  information  base  on  which  compa¬ 
nies  may  forecast  their  future  business  and  product  plans. 

Nynex’ s  3-year-old  MITAS 
DB2  database  is  viewed  as  a 
central  information  ware¬ 
house  for  the  telephone 
firm’s  customers.  Managers 
developing  new  products 
and  services  can  simulate  a 
test  market  by  querying  use 
patterns  in  the  400+G-byte 
customer  database. 

To  support  MITAS,  IS 
managers  must  decide  how 
best  to  maintain,  update 
and  organize  it.  “The  issues 
are  what  information  do  we 
want,  how  long  should  we 
hold  it,  and  what  should  we 
index?”  said  John  Tedesco, 
director  of  marketing  IS  at 
Nynex.  The  firm  boosts  DB2 
performance  by  adding  indexes  that  complement  DB2’s 
query  optimizer,  he  said. 

Partitioning  is  another  way  DB2  administrators  make 
large  databases  easier  to  manage.  UPS’  Dials  database  is 
partitioned  into  13  monthly  segments  to  track  12  million 
packages  each  day,  said  Ilse  Lefas,  data  resource  manager 
at  UPS  information  services  in  Mahwah,  N.J.  It  is  also  divid¬ 
ed  into  2G-byte  datasets,  a  physical  limit  for  DB2. 

“If  you  visualize  a  Rubik’s  cube,”  Lefas  said,  “you  can  vi¬ 
sualize  that  we  have  a  dimension  of  time,  a  dimension  of 
geographic  location  and  a  dimension  of  data  types.” 

Running  a  very  large  database  usually  entails  great  ex¬ 
pense  and  high  overhead,  users  agreed.  But  some,  such  as 
IRI,  said  they  feel  the  benefits  are  well  worth  the  trouble. 

“It’s  like  buyingthebestmanufacturingtools  for  our  busi¬ 
ness,”  said  Ned  Heinbach,  president  of  mi's  Data  Systems 
Division.  “We  are  optimizingthe  database  structure,  in  mul¬ 
tiple  dimensions,  to  fit  our  unique  kinds  of  data.  The  effi¬ 
ciency  more  than  covers  the  cost.” 


Source 

(data) 


Scanners  in 
3,ooo+  stores 
nationwide 

In-store 
product  audits 
done  by 
scanning  bar 
codes 


i,ooo  categories 
(10G-30G  bytes  each) 

Categories  segmented  by: 

Time  period 
(week,  month) 

Market 

(geographic  region) 

Promotional 
campaign  period 


Unix  LAN 

SERVER 


Users  at  vendor 
firms  see  slices 
of  database 


CW  Chart:  Michael  Siggins 


Jumbo  tips 


IS  managers  said  the  following  tech¬ 
niques  aid  in  managing  a  very  large 
database: 

•  Avoid  global  reorganizations  of  the 
database. 

•  Partition  an  IBM  DB2  database  into 
smaller  pieces. 

•  Increase  the  use  of  multistreamed  on-line  backups 
to  tape. 

•  Archive  aging  data  to  slow  growth  of  the  database. 

•  Extract  database  subsets  for  daily  queries  by  end 
users.  — Jean  S.  Bozman 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  57 


It’s  a  familiar  scenario.  First  they  get  a  foot  in  the  door  of  your  MIS 
department.  Then  they  start  working  somebody  upstairs,  like  your 
CEO,  to  get  their  software  declared  a  standard. 

You  may  also  discover  (after  it’s  too  late)  that  their  software 
products  are  not  easily  combined  with  products  from  other  vendors.  So 
once  you  start  buying  from  them,  you  may  have  little  choice  but  to  keep 
buying  from  them. 

That  means  you  lose  the  negotiating  power  that  open  systems  are 
supposed  to  give  you.  You  lose  the  ability  to  control  your  computing 
costs.  You  may  even  find  that  their  products  dictate  the  way  you  run 
your  business. 


WHY  THE  WORLD 

HUMBER  2 

DATABASE  COMPANY 

WANTS  YOU  TO 

KEEP  IT. 

You  can  turn  your  database  into  a  formidable  strategic  asset.  What  you 
need  are  open  systems,  open  software,  and  a  database  vendor  who  lets 
you  design  your  database  around  your  business.  Instead  of  around 
their  products. 

That’s  why  you  should  talk  to  Ingres.  All  INGRES  database  soft¬ 
ware  runs  on  all  open  platforms.  And  we  won’t  ever  try  to  force -fit  your 
business  into  our  line  of  products. 

Instead,  Ingres  offers  a  superior  core  of  open  database  software, 
tools,  and  connectivity  products.  Products  we’ve  designed  to  work  with 
applications  from  more  than  1,000  other  vendors. 

The  result?  You  have  more  options.  You  have  control  of  your 
computing  costs.  And  you  have  control  of  your  business. 

Would  you  like  to  control  your  own  fate?  We  ll  send  you  a  detailed 
white  paper  from  the  Aberdeen  Group,  an  independent  industry  analyst. 

It  tells  you  what  to  look  for  when  you  evaluate  open  database  software. 

Just  call  1-800-4-INGRES. 

\  Ingres 


THE  ASK  GROUP 


Based  on  publicly  reported  revenue  as  of  1 2/31/92. 

©1993  Ingres  Corporation.  INGRES  is  a  trademark  of  Ingres  Corporation.  GA-1273 


OS/2  IS  NO  LONGER  JUST  A  PROMISE 

Because  now  there’s  a  graphical  application 
development  and  decision  support  system  that 
leverages  all  the  advantages  of  OS/2. 

It’s  called  PM/FOCUS  from  Information  Builders. 
A  leader  in  providing  application  development 
and  decision  support  tools  for  all  platforms  and 
databases. 

WHY  WAIT  FOR  THE  FUTURE?  ENJOY  IT  NOW 

With  PM/FOCUS,  OS/2  developers  work 
with  a  functionally7  complete  graphical  toolset, 
allowing  them  to  reduce  their  development 
backlog  and  create  the  kind  of  intuitive  user 


INTRODUCING 

PM/FOCUS 

interfaces  for  applications  that  will  encourage 
people  to  use  them. 

All  your  application  components,  including 
databases,  procedures  and  forms  become  simple 
graphical  objects  that  are  reusable...  saving  time 
and  increasing  productivity. 

ACCESS  ALL  YOUR  ENTERPRISE  DATA 

No  other  OS/2  development  tool  gives  you 
universal  data  access.  Combined  with  EDA/SQL, 
Information  Builders’  client/server  solution, 


you  can  build  GUI  applications  that  access  data 
anywhere  in  your  company.  Over  50  different 
databases  and  Files  on  35  different  platforms. 

GET  THE  PROMISE  OF  OS/2...NOW 

Let  PM/FOCUS  help  your  OS/2  developers 
deliver  GUI  applications  that  are  easy  to  use  and 
you’ll  become  a  legend  in  your  own  time. 

Call  for  more  information,  or  to  attend  a  free 
FOCUS  seminar... 

Call  800-969-INFO 

In  Canada  call  416-364-2760 

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ir.«  Corp  PM  FOCIS  is  a  registered  trademaA  of  Information  Builders.  Inc,  1250  Broadway,  NY,  NY  10001 


Application  Development  — 


CASE 

Languages 

Tools 


Novell  nourishes  NetWare 
app  development  support 


By  Michele  Dostert 

PROVO, UTAH 


Novell,  Inc.  is  moving  to  beef  up  application  develop¬ 
ment  support  for  its  NetWare  local-area  network  oper¬ 
ating  system,  hoping  to  prevent  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Win¬ 
dows  NT  and  IBM’s  OS/2  from  making  inroads  into  its 
more  than  60%  market  share  of  LAN s. 

Novell  succeeded  in  the  file-and-print  LAN  market 
largely  because  it  supported  all  popular  desktop  oper¬ 
ating  environments,  such  as  DOS,  Windows,  OS/2,  Unix 
and  Apple  Computer,  Inc.’s  Macintosh.  “We  believe  that 
your  computing  environment  should  be  modular; 
choose  the  best  desktop  for  your  needs,  then  choose  the 
best  network  operating  system,”  said  John  Edwards, 
vice  president  of  Novell’s  Desktop  Products  Division. 

However,  this  modular  approach  can  be  a  hindrance 
in  the  customized  client/server  application  market  be¬ 
cause  developers  must  write  to  at  least  two  environ¬ 
ments:  the  NetWare  Server  application  programming 
interfaces  (API)  for  the  server  side,  plus  the  desktop 
APIs  for  each  supported  client  type. 

In  contrast,  developers  writing  for  Microsoft’s  NT  Ad¬ 
vanced  Server  LAN  operating  system  or  IBM’s  OS/2- 
based  LAN  Server  need  only  write  to  one  set  of  APIs  for 
both  client  and  server. 


“Both  Microsoft  and  IBM  are  attacking  Novell  from 
the  application  server  side,  hoping  to  first  insinuate 
OS/2  and  NT  application  servers  into  existing  NetWare 
LANs  and  then  gradually 
drive  out  the  NetWare,” 
said  Craig  Burton,  presi¬ 
dent  of  The  Burton  Group, 
a  network  research  firm 
in  Salt  Lake  City. 

Novell’s  first  weapon  in 
the  fight  for  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  application  de¬ 
velopers  is  UnixWare,  its 
SVR4-based  Unix/Net¬ 
Ware  integration  product. 

Developers  can,  with  little 
modification,  port  their 
Unix  applications  to  the 
UnixWare  server,  from 
whence  they  can  be  ac¬ 
cessed  by  both  Unix  and 
NetWare  clients  without 
modification. 

“We’re  very  interested  in  UnixWare,  both  as  a  devel¬ 
opment  platform  and  for  access  to  all  those  Unix  appli¬ 
cations,”  said  Victor  Pigoga,  a  project  leader  at  Blue 


Cross/Blue  Shield  of  Rhode  Island  in  Providence. 

Novell  has  also  beefed  up  NetWare  support  for  object- 
oriented  application  development.  A  January  agree¬ 
ment  with  HyperDesk  Corp.  in  Westboro,  Mass.,  will  let 
Novell  bundle  HyperDesk’s  Distributed  Object  Manage¬ 
ment  System  (HD-DOMS)  with  NetWare.  HD-DOMS  will 
allow  developers  to  treat  NetWare  system  software  and 
services  as  objects  to  be  reused  and  will  thus  promote 
efficient  modular  application  development,  according 
to  Edwards. 

Thirdly,  Novell  has  developed  new  “universal  clients” 
for  each  supported  desktop .  These 
new  client  redirectors,  which  can 
address  any  version  of  NetWare, 
contain  a  set  of  Virtual  Loadable 
Modules  (VLM),  which  provide  net¬ 
work  services  for  file-and-print  re¬ 
direction,  as  well  as  their  own  APIs 
for  NetWare-specific  support.  A 
single  redirector  supports  both 
DOS  and  Windows,  thus  reducing 
the  number  of  client  types  to  write 
to;  redirectors  are  also  available 
for  OS/2  and  Windows  NT  clients. 

“Application  developers  can 
save  themselves  a  lot  of  work  by 
writing  once  to  these  VLM  APIs, 
which  are  the  same  across  all  cli¬ 
ents,”  said  Bob  Young,  Novell’s 
vice  president  for  NetWare. 

Novell  is  also  publishing,  in  con¬ 
junction  with  third-party  application  developers,  a 
standard  set  of  NetWare  APIs  for  such  bleeding-edge 
applications  as  imaging,  telephony  and  multimedia. 


Ready,  aim,  fire 


As  an  application  development  plat¬ 
form,  NetWare  offers  the  following: 

•UnixWare  for  easy  access  to  all  SVR4 
Unix  applications. 

•New object  programmingtools  from  Hy¬ 
perDesk  and  ObjectVison. 

•New  NetWare  APIs  that  give  developers 
access  to  directory,  security  and  trans¬ 
port  services. 

•Support,  APIs  for  imaging,  telephony, 
multimedia  applications. 

•New  support  for  in-house  application 
developers. 


Exchanges  partner  on 
client/server  system 


By  Thomas  Hoffman 


The  Chicago  Mercantile  Exchange 
(CME)  and  the  New  York  Mercan¬ 
tile  Exchange  (Nymex)  have 
joined  forces  in  a  three-year  appli¬ 
cation  development  effort  de¬ 
signed  to  create  a  standardized, 
client/server  trade 
clearing  system  for  35 
common  and  85  total 
brokerage  firms. 

The  two  futures  ex¬ 
changes  are  using 
Texas  Instruments, 

Inc.’s  Information  En¬ 
gineering  Facility 
(IEF)  computer-aided 
software  engineering 
(CASE)  environment 
to  build  better  inte¬ 
grated,  distributed 
applications  to  re¬ 
place  their  respective  batch  trad¬ 
ing-floor  and  back-office  systems. 
The  joint  effort  is  expected  to 
speed  development  and  save  as 
much  as  $22  million  through 
shared  project  costs  and  re¬ 
sources. 

But  do  not  equate  sharing  re¬ 


sources  with  shared  systems.  CME 
and  Nymex  are  planning  to  keep 
their  operations  independent  from 
each  other,  according  to  Stephen 
C.  Daffron,  senior  vice  president  of 
strategic  planning  and  informa¬ 
tion  services  at  Nymex. 

However,  Daffron  and  his  CME 
peer  did  not  rule  out 
the  possibility  of  cre¬ 
ating  redundancies 
between  each  other’s 
trading-floor  and 
back-office  systems 
in  the  event  a  disaster 
strikes  either  ex¬ 
change. 

“The  distributed 
technologies  avail¬ 
able  today  aren’t 
ready  for  these  types 
of  fall-back  and  recov¬ 
ery,”  added  Don  Ser- 
pico,  senior  vice  president  of  oper¬ 
ations  at  CME. 

CME  relies  on  a  dozen  Tandem 
Computers,  Inc.  Cyclone  proces¬ 
sors,  alongwith  an  IBM  Enterprise 
System/9330  mainframe,  and  Ser- 
pico  said  he  wants  to  ensure  that  a 
Exchanges,  page  64 


CME’s  Don  Serpico: 

Chose  TI  because  it 
had  ‘happiest  users’ 


Development  tools 

Cadre  to  support  two  object-oriented  methodologies 


By  Garry  Ray 

PROVIDENCE,  R.I. 


■  Cadre  Technologies,  Inc.  last  week  an¬ 
nounced  a  new  line  of  development  tools  that 
support  two  well-known  object-oriented  pro¬ 
gramming  methodologies. 

Called  ObjectTeam,  the  workbenches  will  be 
available  this  June  in  versions  supporting  ei¬ 
ther  the  Rumbaugh  Object  ModelingTechnique 
or  the  Shlaer-Mellor  object  modeling  method. 
Both  versions  will  be  available  for  Unix,  VMS 
and  Microsoft  Corp.  Windows  3.1  and  can  gen¬ 
erate  C  ++,  Ada  and  SQL  code,  company  offi¬ 
cials  said. 

According  to  the  company,  ObjectTeam  for 
Rumbaugh  supports  a  wide  number  of  func¬ 
tions  called  for  in  the  Rumbaugh  Object  Model¬ 
ingTechnique. 

Types  of  support 

The  tool  supports  object,  dynamic  and  func¬ 
tional  models;  and  object,  state,  data  flow  and 
event  trace  diagrams.  It  also  generates  code 
for  a  variety  of  databases  including  ANSI  stan¬ 
dard  SQL;  Oracle  Corp.’s  Oracle  7;  and  object- 
oriented  databases  such  as  Versant  Object 
Technology’s  Versant,  Object  Design,  Inc.’s  Ob- 
jectstore,  Objectivity,  Inc.’s  Objectivity,  Ontos, 
Inc.’s  Ontos  and  Raima  Corp.’s  Raima. 

Aimed  at  multiple  programmer  development 
efforts,  ObjectTeam  for  Rumbaugh  also  sup¬ 


ports  a  multiuser  repository  and  a  Basic  script 
language  for  access  to  repository  contents,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  company. 

ObjectTeam  for  Rumbaugh  “is  one  of  the  few 
tools  to  support  all  phases  of  development”  us¬ 
ing  the  Rumbaugh  methodology,  said  Keith 
Schomburg,  a  senior  associate  programmer  at 
IBM’s  Networking  Systems  Division  in  Re¬ 
search  Triangle  Park,  N.C.  Schomburg,  who  has 
been  beta-testing  the  product,  said:  “Other 
tools  I’ve  tried  have  drawbacks  or  don’t  sup¬ 
port  all  of  the  method.” 

ObjectTeam  for  Shlaer-Mellor  is  a  complete 
implementation  of  the  Shlaer-Mellor  object-ori¬ 
ented  design  and  analysis  method,  Cadre  offi¬ 
cials  said.  The  workbench  supports  work  prod¬ 
uct  generation,  design  checking,  docu¬ 
mentation  and  report  generation. 

In  addition,  the  tool  was  designed  with  the 
aid  of  the  methodology  authors. 

Steve  Mellor,  vice  president  of  Project  Tech¬ 
nology,  Inc.  in  Berkeley,  Calif.,  and  co-developer 
of  the  methodology,  said,  “We  reviewed  [Cad¬ 
re’s]  specifications  for  correctness  against  our 
method.”  Mellor,  who  acted  as  a  consultant  on 
the  ObjectTeam  design,  added  that  the  work¬ 
bench  is  “possibly  the  most  complete  imple¬ 
mentation  compared  with  others”  that  are  now 
available. 

ObjectTeam  for  Rumbaugh  and  ObjectTeam 
for  Shlaer-Mellor,  with  pricing  beginning  at 
$3,995  and  $10,000,  respectively  is  slated  to 
ship  in  June,  company  officials-said. 


COMPUTERWORLD  MAY  31,  1993  61 


rir  ‘ 


HHfes  i 


Then  let  the  evolution  begin 


PUTTING  IMAGINATION  TOW' 


u*  W»  »XP  «  Op,„«S  «  0,g,».  EW„,  Oo.po,^  0~  — .  «  «-«  «-»  “  ~  ”  «3 


be  both  strong  and  agile 


^  ’t 

S  *  §  * 


These  days,  it  doesn't  take  Darwin  to  know 
that  competition  calls  for  a  new  breed  of 

_ *  .  +^»  i/hK  inn  TA  Ars  ^ 


company.  One  that's  tough  enough  to  go 
head  to  head.  Yet  nimble  enough  to 


outmaneuver  predators. 
Can  such  an  animal  possibly  exist?  You  bet. 

With  computer  downsizing  from  Digital. 
We  start  by  strengthening  you  from  horn  to 
hoof .  Arming  you  with  everything  from  the 
world's  most  powerful  PCs  to  the  largest 
data  centers.  In  fact,  we  offer  a  full  line  of 


UvJIU  OCl  IICIO.  II  I  I'vJV^I ,  vv^  ^ 

computers  that  leads  the  industry  in  both 


performance  and  price.  All  built  on  our 

TM 

newest  technology,  the  Alpha  AXP 
microprocessor,  which  pounds  the 
competition  on  speed,  power  and  flexibility. 
In  fact,  our  Alpha  AXP-based  computers 

TM 

let  you  sleekly  jump  from  OpenVMS  to 
UNIX®  to  Windows™  NT,  matching  operating 
systems  to  needs,  You'll  also  have  the 
flexibility  to  run  your  applications  on  any 
size  platform,  now  and  into  the  future. 
So,  how  do  you  become  such  an  imposing 
beast?  You  start  with  this  offer.  To  help  you 


more  clearly  understand  the  people,  business 
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’ 

consultants  will  do  an  extensive  diagnostic 
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and  give  you  a  customized  report-free. 
To  see  if  you  qualify,  call  1  -800-332-4636, 

_ Oi/%1/  ^/MT  rsvf  "\  A 


m 


- 


Application  Development 


Exchanges 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  61 

switch  to  client/server  computing  has  no 
effect  on  its  fault  tolerance. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  distributed 
development  effort,  Serpico  said,  CME 
will  keep  its  Tandems  as  the  first  check¬ 
point  for  any  transactions  being  routed, 
while  the  IBM  mainframe  will  be  used  to 
transfer  information  for  back-end  pro¬ 
cessing.  He  said  the  mainframes  may 
eventually  be  phased  out  for  cost  saving's 
if  CME  can  develop  a  fail-safe  client/serv¬ 
er  environment. 

Nymex,  which  also  operates  under  a 
Tandem  environment,  wants  to  ensure 
the  same  security.  “We’ll  be  keeping  our 
settlement  and  clearing  systems  on  Tan¬ 
dem  until  we’re  comfortable  with  moving 
to  the  distributed  architecture,”  Daffron 
said. 

CME  and  Nymex  have  both  tapped  De- 
loitte  &  Touche  to  consult  on  the  joint  ef¬ 
fort.  The  exchanges  are  committing  a 
combined  $22  million  to  the  joint  soft¬ 
ware  development  phase.  Serpico  said  it 


Tale  of  two  exchanges 

New  York  Mercantile  Exchange 

Computing  platform:  Tandem’s  fault-tolerant 
Cyclones. 

Number  of  Tandem  trading-floor  terminals: 

400. 

Commitment  to  joint  application  development 
project:  $7  million. 

Chicago  Mercantile  Exchange 

Computing  platform:  Tandem’s  fault-tolerant 
Cyclones  and  IBM’s  ES/9330  mainframe. 

Number  of  Tandem  trading-floor  terminals: 

300. 

Commitment  to  joint  application  development 
project:  $15  million. 


would  have  cost  the  exchanges  twice  as 
much  to  develop  the  software  indepen¬ 
dently.  He  said  the  exchanges  have  be¬ 
gun  working  with  TI’s  IEF  Release  5.1  to 
develop  the  distributed  applications. 

IEF  Release  5.2,  which  analysts  said  is 
geared  toward  developing  graphical  us¬ 
er  interface-based  client/server  applica¬ 
tions,  is  currently  in  beta  testing  and  is 
expected  to  roll  out  by  year’s  end,  when 
CME  and  Nymex  plan  to  switch  over. 

Serpico  said  the  two  exchanges  chose 
TI  over  other  CASE  vendors,  including 
Knowledge  Ware,  Inc.,  because  “it  had 
the  biggest  client  base  and  the  happiest 
users.” 

Serpico  said  the  existing  batch  trade 
management  system  is  ill-suited  to  sup¬ 
port  real-time  trade  matches.  CME  is 
working  on  a  joint  effort  with  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Trade  to  automate  that  system. 
Under  that  four-year  project,  the  two  or¬ 
ganizations  have  been  testing  handheld 
computers  for  their  brokers  and  clerks 
toconduct  audits  [CW.  Feb.  10, 1992], 

Currently,  trade  discrepancies  among 
member  firms  often  take  four  hours  or 
more  to  settle  under  the  batch  environ¬ 
ment.  With  a  client/server  configuration, 


Serpico  said,  he  hopes  to  complete  those 
transactions  within  seconds. 

But  the  joint  application  development 
efforts  go  well  beyond  trade  clearing, 
Daffron  said.  Unlike  rival  exchanges  in 
London,  most  U.S.  exchanges  have  not 
yet  integrated  their  own  back-office  sys¬ 
tems.  It  is  more  costly  and  less  efficient 
for  member  firms  such  as  Merrill  Lynch  & 
Co.  to  trade  on  an  American  exchange, 
Daffron  said.  “By  integrating  our  back- 
office  systems,  we  can  help  our  clearing 


members  to  reduce  their  costs,”  Daffron 
said.  He  said  Nymex  has  not  yet  deter¬ 
mined  the  cost  savings  that  would  be 
passed  on  to  member  firms. 

The  distributed  architecture  is  expect¬ 
ed  to  trigger  other  cost  savings.  By  mov¬ 
ing  the  bulk  of  its  core  applications  off  its 
mainframes,  CME  expects  to  reduce  con¬ 
siderably  its  $2  million  annual  hardware 
and  software  maintenance  fees.  CME’s 
annual  information  systems  budget  is 
$20  million. 


Daffron  said  both  exchanges  are  eval¬ 
uating  Unix  platforms  from  IBM  and 
Hewlett-Packard  Co.,  along  with  Digital 
Equipment  Corp.’s  Alpha  AXP  environ¬ 
ment  running  under  VMS.  Nymex  ex¬ 
pects  to  choose  a  platform  by  year’s  end. 
Future  Nymex  applications  for  the  plat¬ 
form  will  include  trade  settlements, 
trade  captures  and  risk  management. 

Once  the  architecture  is  in  place,  Daf¬ 
fron  said,  Nymex  plans  to  roll  out  a  new 
application  every  six  months. 


AIX/6000  has  no  par. 

What  are  you  driving  for?  Open 
computing  and  superior  price/per¬ 
formance?  Then  set  your  course  for 
the  most  open  UNIX®  operating  sys¬ 
tem  in  the  field, 
AIX®  for  RISC 
System/6000? 

AIX/6000™ 
is  unquestion¬ 
ably  open,  so  it 
will  fit  in  with 
your  existing 
equipment  and  network  communica¬ 
tions  links,  whether  they  are  from 
IBM  or  not.  AIX/6000  complies  with 
all  relevant  UNIX  industry  standards, 


Rise. 


S  V  s 


60  0° 


Over  6,500  applications  are  par 
for  the  course  with  AIX/6000.  Every¬ 
thing  from  application  development 
tools  to  accounts  receivable,  from 


including  the  new  DCE  from  OSF,™ 
which  allow  you  to  take  advantage  of  a 
host  of  new  software  technologies, 
including  client/server  applications. 

isthena 


IBM,  AIX  and  RISC  System/6000  are  registered  trademarks  and  AIX/6000  and 
CICS/6000  are  trademarks  of  International  Business  Machines  Corporation. 
All  other  products  are  trademarks  or  registered  trademarks  of  their  respective 
companies.  ©  1993  IBM  Corp 


64  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Application  Development 


Programming  aids 

Blue  Sky  sharpens  Windows  tools 


By  Melinda-Carol  Ballou 

ATLANTA 


Blue  Sky  Software  Corp.  last  week  an¬ 
nounced  a  new  version  of  its  Windows- 
Maker  Professional  C/C  +  +  code  genera¬ 
tor  that  includes  a  what-you-see-is- 


what-you-get  (WYSIWYG)  prototyper 
and  tool  bar  support. 

The  company  also  previewed  Visual 
SQL,  a  tool  said  to  let  developers  incor¬ 
porate  database  access  into  their  appli¬ 
cations  as  they  build  them. 

The  latest  WindowsMaker  Profession¬ 


al  product  —  Version  5.0  —  lets  users 
choose  the  compiler  they  want  without 
locking  them  into  a  specific  compiler, 
company  officials  said.  Compilers  sup¬ 
ported  include  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Visual 
C++,  C6  and  C7;  Borland  International, 
Inc.’s  C  +  +  ;  the  Zortech  division  of  Sy¬ 


mantec  Corp.’s  C++  and  others. 

The  new  version  of  WindowsMaker 
will  reportedly  generate  ANSI  C,  Micro¬ 
soft  Foundation  Classes  or  Object  Win¬ 
dows  Library  code  and  let  users  set  at¬ 
tributes  and  properties  for  control  of 
both  windows  and  dialogboxes.  It  also  of¬ 
fers  drag-and-drop  editing  and  pre¬ 
defined  application  templates  for  faster 
development,  the  vendor  said. 

The  tool  bar  support  facilitates  the  de¬ 
fining  of  tool  bars  for  applications,  and 
the  WYSIWYG  prototyper  aims  to  let  us¬ 
ers  generate  C  or  C  +  +  source  code  di¬ 
rectly  from  their  prototypes.  Special  ef¬ 
fects,  such  as  three-dimensional  buttons 
and  patterns,  are  also  available  with  Ver¬ 
sion  5.0. 

Visual  SQL  lets  users  visually  map  da¬ 
ta  from  the  target  databases  into  the  ap¬ 
plication  screens  using  a  mouse.  While 
designing  data-entry  screens  with  a 
screen  painter,  developers  can  reported¬ 
ly  add  database  actions  directly  behind 
buttons  and  other  controls  by  pointing 
and  clicking. 

Visual  SQL  saves  time  by  generatingC 
code  for  the  application  design,  which 
will  then  make  direct  calls  to  both  the 
Windows  and  database  application  pro¬ 
gramming  interfaces,  the  company  said. 

The  product  also  offers  a  develop¬ 
ment-hastening  Preview  Mode  to  let  de¬ 
velopers  test-run  the  application  without 
first  having  to  go  through  the  traditional 
compile-and-link  cycle. 

Visual  SQL  will  generate  source  code 
for  access  to  Oracle  Corp.’s  Oracle,  Mi¬ 
crosoft  Corp.’s  SQL  Server,  Commandel 
Industries,  Inc.’s  Integra  SQL,  Borland’s 
dBase  files  and  all  databases  supporting 
Microsoft’s  Open  Database  Connectivity 
standard. 

Separately,  Blue  Sky  amiounced  a  new 
version  of  RoboHelp,  the  company’s  Win¬ 
dows  Help  authoring  tool.  RoboHelp  2.0 
offers  the  ability  to  use  a  single  text 
source  for  both  Help  and  documentation. 
Also,  a  graphical  debugger  and  intelli¬ 
gent  agent  guide  developers  to  the  loca¬ 
tion  of  a  potential  error  before  compiling 
the  code,  the  vendor  said. 

Users  can  visually  add  context-sensi¬ 
tive  Help  by  placing  the  included  Help 
button  in  the  application’s  dialog  box 
and  then  clicking  on  the  button  to  link  in 
the  associated  Help  topic.  The  new  ver¬ 
sion  also  supports  the  Windows  3.1  Help 
Engine. 

WindowsMaker  5.0  and  RoboHelp  2.0 
are  scheduled  to  ship  during  the  second 
quarter  for  $1,096  and  $495,  respectively. 
Visual  SQL  is  slated  to  ship  during  the 
third  quarter  and  will  cost  $4,900. 


C0MPUTEKW0RLD 


with  your  computer/modem 


see  what  were  driving  at. 

Get  ahead  of  the  game  and  con¬ 
tact  your  IBM  marketing  represen¬ 
tative  or  Business  Partner  to  find  out 


what  the  AIX/6000  can  do  for  you. 


ame 


databases  to  CAD.  And  AIX/6000  also 
offers  CICS/60007  the  most  popular 
online  transaction  processing  (OLTP) 
program  available,  as  well  as  Encina^ 
an  exciting  new  OLTP  technology. 

And  IBM  enhancements  make 
you  a  big  hitter  off  the  tee  with 
improved  systems  and  network  man¬ 
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installation.  With  RISC  System/6000’s 
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no  handicap  to  your  needs  or  your 

budget.  Team  that  up 
with  IBM’s  unparal¬ 
leled  service  and 
support  24  hours  a 
day,  365  days  a 
year  and  you’ll 


For  literature  call  1  800  IBM- 6676, 
ext.  688.  Because  open  is  the  only 
way  to  play. 


iiuinmituiiuuHmmaiuiiiu<mmiuiii:iumimitiii<mm 
/-a,  . 


:® 


COMPUTERWORLD  MAY  31,  1993  SS 


"How  can  you  capitalize  on 
data  systems  and  solutions? 


We're  Crestar.  With  more  than  260 
branches  in  Maryland,  Virginia  and 
Washington,  D.C.,  we’re  convenient  to  all 
the  places  our  customers  live,  work  or 
shop.  Customer  service  is  the  key  to  our 
success.  And  the  companies  of  Bell 
Atlantic*  play  a  significant  role  in  apply' 
ing  technology  to 
provide  superior 
customer  service. 

One  way  is  our 
Retail  Automa' 
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Atlantic’s  High  Speed  Data  Network. 
Only  Bell  Atlantic  had  the  infrastructure 
in  place  to  provide  the  data  solutions  we 
needed.  Thanks  to  Bell  Atlantic,  every 
location  has  immediate  access  to  all 
customer  information,  at  all  times.  This 


allows  the  branches  to  open  accounts 
and  cross  sell  additional  services  faster, 
improving  productivity  along  the  way. 
As  we  acquire  new  branches,  Bell 
Atlantic  is  there  to  help  bring  them  on' 
line  and  integrate  them  into  our  network 
within  72  hours,  sometimes  within  24 

hours.  And  Bell 
Atlantic  monitors 
the  entire  net' 
work  24  hours  a 
day.  The  network 
has  proven  reliable— ondine  an  astound' 
ing  99.98%.  Even  now,  they’re  installing 
LANs  and  workstations  that  integrate 
many  of  our  locations.  Pleasing  the  cus' 
tomer  is  our  main  goal.  Obviously,  it’s  Bell 
Atlantic’s  goal  too.  So  call  me,  I’ll  tell  you 
how  Bell  Atlantic  was  right  on  the  money. 


Call  me. 


I'll  tell  you  how 
Bell  Atlantic  paid  off” 


1'800'756'4636 


©Bell  Atlantic 

We’re  More  Than  Just  Talk. 


Callers  will  hear  a  recorded  message  from  Mr.  Ginther,  and  will  be  given  the  opportunity  to  leave  a  message  for  him  or  to  speak  with  a  Bell  Atlantic  representative.  ‘The  Bell  Atlantic  family  of  companies  include  -  th-.  : 
Atlantic  Systems  Group,  New  Jersey  Bell,  Bell  of  Pennsylvania,  Diamond  State  Telephone,  the  C&P  Telephone  Companies  and  other  communications  and  information  management  companies  1993  Bell  Atlai  tit 


On  The  Excitement  Scale.  Where  Poes  Managing 


Okay,  well  admit  data  management  lacks  the  sex  appeal  of 
GUIs  and  LANs.  But  we  know  how  important  it  is  to  building 
successful  client/server  applications.  In  fact,  the  way  you  manage 
data  ultimately  determines  both  the  integrity  of  your  information 
and  its  availability.  And  isn't  putting  accurate  information  at  your 
users'  fingertips  what  client/server  is  all  about? 

To  help  you  address  the  complex  issues  of  data  management 
in  a  distributed  environment,  we've  developed  a  useful  guide 
that's  yours  free  For  your  copy,  return  this  coupon  or  phone  us 
at  1-800-BACHMAN.  In  Canada,  call  1-800-445-0854. 

Managing  data  in  a  client/server  world  may  not  be  the  most 
exciting  thing  you  can  do.  Just  one  of  the  most  important. 


I  NAME _ 

I 

COMPANY _ 

I  ADDRESS _ 

I 

|  CITY _ STATE _ ZIP _ 

I  Send  to:  Data  Guide,  Bachman  Information  Systems, 

|  8  New  England  Executive  Park,  Burlington,  MA  01803 

|  Or  phone  toll-free  1-800-BACHMAN 


BACHMAN 

i  i 

i  i 

i _ i 


©  1993  Baconian  Information  Systems.  Inc  A  i  nghts  reserved 
GS00K92AGSS990  Option  year  one 


Implementing  client/ server  may 
seem  insurmountable. 


Learn  how  to  overcome  the  challenge 
at  our  client/ server  seminar! 


We  realize  that  you  may  view 
client/ server  as  insurmountable,  so 
let  us  show  you  that  it  needn't  be. 
With  proven  tools  and 
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your  goal.  Our  seminar  will  show 
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Consulting 

Software  Products 


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FIRST  CLASS  MAIL  PERMIT  NO  43  CHICAGO,  IL 

POSTAGE  WILL  BE  PAID  BY  ADDRESSEE 


DEANNA  FINLEY 
ANDERSEN  CONSULTING 
69  W  WASHINGTON  ST 
ROOM  1029  -  A10S 
CHICAGO  IL  60602-9760 


l,ILII.„.ILII . I.II.I..I...I.II..II....I..II 


Check  this  list  for  the  FOUNDATION®  seminar  time  and  location  that's  most 
convenient  for  you.  Then  be  sure  to  reserve  a  spot  for  yourself  by  sending  in  the 
postage-paid  card  at  the  bottom  of  this  page,  or  by  calling  us  at  1-800-458-8851. 
You  can  also  fax  us  your  reservation  at  1-312-507-8150. 


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Chicago  -  O'Hare 

Pittsburgh 

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Printed  in  U.S.A. 


After  more  than  a  decade 
of  acrimony,  PC  managers 
are  allying  more  and  more 
with  mainstream  IS.  Just 
how  this  odd  couple  will 
tame  an  “out  of  control” 
PC  universe  worth  billions 
remains  to  be  seen. 


by 


Joseph  maglitta 
&  carol  Hildebrand 


mrm 

mi 

tip 

w 

mm 

I!  \ 

III 

Pacific  Telecom’s  Roland  Michaud:  'The  politics  can  be  constant' 


They  are  the  Jerry  Rubins  of  computing 
—  rebels  turned  status  quo.  And  accord- 
ingto  some,  none  too  soon. 

A  decade  after  the  first  PCs  began  appearing 
on  corporate  desks  in  significant  numbers, 
sweeping  technological  changes  are  trans¬ 
forming  a  diverse  array  of  microcomputer 
managers  into  a  wider  ranging,  more  main¬ 
stream  force. 

“The  traditional  wrar  between  IS  and  PCs  was 
over  a  longtime  ago,”  says  Priscilla  Tate,  exec¬ 
utive  director  of  the  2,000-member  national  Mi¬ 


crocomputer  Managers  Association  (MMA). 
The  New  York-based  group,  the  world’s  largest 
organization  for  PC  professionals,  recently  cel¬ 
ebrated  its  10th  anniversary. 

In  many  organizations  today,  PC  managers 
are  increasingly  becoming  allies  with  tradi¬ 
tional  information  systems  groups  in  hopes  of 
taming  the  costly,  often  chaotic  explosion  of 
end-user  and  workgroup  computing  that  PC 
managers  helped  create  in  the  early  1980s. 

The  stakes  are  huge:  Companies  worldwide 
spent  nearly  $30  billion  on  PC  hardware  alone 


in  1992,  according  to  International  Data  Corp., 
a  Framingham,  Mass.,  market  research  firm. 
The  figure  is  predicted  to  modestly  increase 
this  year. 

Observers  say  the  rapid  spread  of  newer 
technologies,  especially  local-area  networks, 
groupware,  notebook  computers  and  cli¬ 
ent/servercomputing,  is  stretching  microcom¬ 
puter  managers  into  areas  once  considered 
solely  the  province  of  IS. 

“Things  have  changed  dramatically,”  notes 
Abridge  too  late?, page  72 


COMPUTERWORLD  MAY  31,  1993 


69 


Robbie  McClarran 


wo  opposing  forces  in 
modern  business  are 
on  a  collision  course: 
the  need  for  specialized,  localized  hardware 
and  software  solutions,  and  the  need  to  cost- 
effectively  unite  those  information  resources 
into  a  manageable  business  asset. 

As  IT  managers  respond  to  this  challenge, 
they  must  cope  with  explosive  growth  in  the 
number  and  diversity  of  devices  and  systems. 
Enterprise  systems  are  becoming  profoundly 
more  complex. 

Organizations  today  have  a  mixture  of 
older,  centralized  systems  and  new,  distributed 
systems — a  wide  variety  of  technologies  pro¬ 
vided  by  an  even  larger  number  of  vendors. 

The  challenge  is  managing  this  diverse  col¬ 
lection  of  resources.  The  nature  of  the  prob¬ 
lem  requires  a  “best-of-breed”  multi-vendor 
solution. 

That’s  why  the  leaders  in  information 
technology  listed  here  are  committed  to  cre¬ 
ating  and  providing  Enterprise  Management 
solutions. 

What  Is  Enterprise 
Management? 

Enterprise  management  is  a  strategy  for 
integrated  monitoring,  measurement  and  con¬ 
trol  of  multi-vendor  networks  and  computer 
systems  to  serve  enterprise  business  needs.  It 
is  a  technological  framework  into  which  multi¬ 
ple  management  tools,  applications  and  dis¬ 
plays  can  fit,  providing  end-to-end  manage¬ 
ment  of  network  elements  and  resources. 

Enterprise  management  requires  an  organi¬ 
zational  commitment  to,  and  consensus  on,  a 
common  open  management  platform  and  a  set 
of  open  management  standards  for  use 
throughout  the  enterprise. 

The  Benefits 

Implementing  an  enterprise  management 
strategy  provides  considerable  benefits: 

►  Continuously  high  levels  of  reliable  and 
responsive  service. 

►  Smooth  incorporation  of  new  client-serv¬ 
er  solutions  with  existing  mainframe  approach¬ 
es.  Your  investment  in  existing  mission-critical 
applications  is  preserved  and  augmented. 

►  Change  and  increasing  complexity  can  be 
accommodated  more  quickly,  without  jeopar¬ 
dizing  system  and  network  availability. 

►  Greater  optimization  of  network  and  sys¬ 
tem  resources  ensures  high  quality  service  is 
maintained  at  the  lowest  possible  cost. 

►  Automation  of  management  processes 
allows  systems  administration  and  opera¬ 
tional  costs  to  reduce  steadily  as  your 
enterprise  grows. 

t-  Network  and  data  security  is  enhanced. 


Managing  Change 
and  Complexity 


fe 

s 

c 


I 


What  You  Can  Do  Today 

To  achieve  the  benefits  of  enterprise  management,  take  these  steps: 

►  Develop  organizational  consensus  on  a  strategy  and  on  a  management 
platform: 

•  working  with  your  key  vendors  and  carriers,  develop  a  strategy  for  imple¬ 
menting  this  enterprise  management  architecture  within  your  organization. 

•  establish  purchasing  guidelines  that  all  parts  of  your  organization  can 
follow  so  that  their  evolving  information  systems  can  fit  into  the  enterprise 
management  approach. 

►  Select  a  common  open  management  platform  for  use  across  your  enterprise  that: 

•  enables  management  of  products  and  services  from  multiple  vendors. 

•  is  standards-based. 

•  enables  integration  of  management  tools  and  applications  from  multiple  vendors. 

►  Review  existing  management  tools  and  interfaces  and  prioritize  upgrades 
that  move  the  organization  toward  enterprise  management  in  the  most  cost- 
effective  and  rapid  manner  possible. 


►  Favor  distributed  and  object-oriented  management  solutions. 

►  Use  management  solutions  that  incorporate  open  management  standards 
such  as  the  Simple  Network  Management  Protocol  (SNMP),  the  Common 
Management  Information  Protocol  (CMIP)  and  the  OSF’s  Distributed  Management 
Environment  (DME). 

►  Automation  is  a  key  element  in  effective  enterprise  management.  Move 
toward  “self-managed"  systems. 

►  Require  the  use  of  open  management  protocols  in  new  information  sys¬ 
tem  purchases  and  deploy  open  management  protocols  in  existing  network  ele¬ 
ments,  distributed  systems  and  vendor-specific  management  systems. 

Contact  the  leading  vendors  listed  here.  They  can 
provide  you  with  additional  information  on  the  enter¬ 
prise  management  strategy  that’s  right  for  your  orga¬ 
nization,  and  the  products  and  services  you  need  to 
implement  it. 


these  industry  leaders 
have  come  together  to 
promote  the  business 
benefits  of  on  Enterprise 
Management  Strategy  They 
can  be  contacted  directly  or  by 
using  the  reply  card  below. 

The  Partnership  Legend  illus¬ 
trates  relationships  that  have 
formed  to  provide  these  com¬ 
plex,  multi-vendor  solutions. 

The  Management  Solutions 
Legend  denotes  some  of  the 
types  of  products  and  services 
each  of  these  vendors  con¬ 
tributes  to  a  complete  solution. 


SOURCES  OF  ENTERPRISE  MANAGEMENT  SOLUTIONS 


American  Power  Conversion 


APC  is  the  leader  in  power  protection  for 
networks.  APC  solutions  include:  UPS 
systems,  automatic  shutdown  and  monitor¬ 
ing  software,  and  remote  management  via 
SNMP  1 -800-800-4APC 
) 


computing  devices,  inc. 


ACD  provides  UNIX  software  platforms  to 
deliver  integrated  applications  for  the 
5  Specialized  Management  Functional 
Areas:  Fault,  Configuration,  Performance, 
Security  and  Accounting.  1  -81  2-232-6051 
■  A  A  O 


ascom  Timeplex  - 

Unified  architecture,  intuitive  management, 
and  global  support  for  robust  enterprise 
networks  that  are  simple  to  install  and  easy 
to  operate  1-800-669-2298 

■  AX 


1 1  s  c  i  S  t  :  1 1 


CiscoWorks  —  a  comprehensive  series  of 
SNMP-based  router  management  applica¬ 
tions  —  enables  users  to  easily  manage, 
monitor  and  administer  Cisco  internet¬ 
works  1 -800-553-NETS 


G§fTlDI/CO 

SYSTEMS, INC  wmmmt 

BONeS*  family  of  graphical  simulation 
software  tools  to  design,  analyze,  and  pre¬ 
dict  the  integration  and  expansion  of 
Enterprise  Networks.  1-415-574-5800. 


iw  Data  General  SS 

Providing  the  tools  to  build  your  enterprise 
management  foundation.  For  information, 
call  your  local  Data  General  sales  office  or 
1 -800-DATA  GEN 

XO 


UCIII/\A 

SOFTWARE  rn. 

With  SecureMax  and  System  Detective, 
DEMAX  Software  is  the  market  leader  in 
providing  centralized  security  manage¬ 
ment  solutions  for  networked  UNIX  and 
VMS  environments.  1-800-283-3629 


POLYCENTER  solutions  provide  open  multi¬ 
vendor  system  and  network  management. 
From  UNIX  to  Windows  NT,  NetWare  to 
OSI,  Digital  delivers  integrated  manage¬ 
ment.  1  -800-332-INFO  ext.  POLY 
•  AX 


IBM  and  the  International  Alliance 
Members  lead  the  way  in  solving  cus¬ 
tomers'  management  problems  today, 
delivering  SystemView  conforming;  prod¬ 
ucts,  offerings  and  services  Call  us  at 
1 -800-IBM-6676  (x685) 

,Y  IA  X 


A 

INTI  CONNECTIONS 

W-Wr.  <  ».**..* 

Leverage  for  NetWare  integrates  NetWare 
LANs  and  VAX/VMS  systems,  providing 
File  Sharing  Services,  Network  Print 
Services,  ana  Terminal  Emulation  Services 
(TES).  1-800-950-5773 


J&L's  X-Server,  developed  to  manage  and 
monitor  ChatterBox  systems  in  a  Novell 
network,  can  be  accessed  from  any  SNMP 
management  station. 

1  -81 8-709-1 778 


LANDMARK 


A> 


enterprise  performance 
‘BM 


The  leader 
management  for  IBM  mainframe  and 
multi-platform  UNIX  environments.  Our 
products  are  integrated  through  a  unique 
client/server  architecture.  1 -800-488-1  1  1 1 
■  ,Y  X  * 


NetLabs 


NetLabs  is  the  leading  independent 
supplier  of  standards-based  network 
management  solutions  providing  manage¬ 
ment  platforms,  development  environ¬ 
ments,  and  integrated  applications. 
1-800-447-9300 
■  >r/A  +  X«  O 


OP  ENVISION  asse 

OpenVision  products  and  services  over¬ 
come  the  barriers  to  deploying  production 
applications  in  distributed  environments  by 
addressing  operations,  performance,  stor¬ 
age  and  security.  1-510-426-6400 
ixo 


PLATINUM 

TECH  X  ( )  1.  O  G  Y 


PLATINUM  technology  offers  a  complete 
set  of  software  tools  and  utilities  for 
DB2,  QMF,  and  other  IBM  databases,  as 
well  as  innovative  client/server  tools. 
1-800-442-6861 


SNMP  Research 

Produces  a  family  of  network  management 
products  based  on  SNMP,  SNMP  Version 
2,  and  other  protocols  including  agent  and 
network  management  station  source  code. 
1-615-573-1434 


SSDS 


The  DESC,  SSDS'  enterprise-wide  system 
management  architecture,  integrates  het¬ 
erogeneous  net  management  platforms 
/software/applications;  providing  truly 
distributed  systems  management. 

1  -800-NET-DESC 
tb.y/a+x  o 


# SunConnect  ZZZ 

SunNet  Manager  and  the  largest  number 
of  third  party  management  applications 
available,  provide  system  managers  with 
distributed  management  solutions  for  com¬ 
plex  heterogeneous  networks. 

1  -800-241  -CONX 
A  ’ 


TECHNICALLY 

ELITE  _ 

concepts  MBKSSS 

Technically  Elite  Concepts  offers  fully  inte¬ 
grated  LAN  &  WAN  monitoring  hardware 
and  software  applications  with  RMON 
based  Ethernet  and  Token  Ring  solutions. 
1-800-659-6975 
▼  •■  A  ♦ 


Ungermann-Bass  " 

Ungermann-Boss,  the  leading  global  enter¬ 
prise  network  innovator,  is  the  dominant 
supplier  of  network  management  software 
ana  high-end  intelligent  hubs. 

1 -800-777-4LAN 
■  A  A  AX  ) 


UNISOL  Site  Management  Utilities  perform 
system  and  network  management  security 
auditing,  backup  and  restore,  performance 
monitoring  and  resource  accounting 
chargeback.  1-310-542-0068 


SYSTIM  LABORATORIES 


▼  Cabletron  Spectrum 
•  Digital  POLYCENTER 

B  Hewlett-Packard  OpenView 
Jr  IBM  NetView/6000 
I  IBM  SystemView 

/  NetLabs/OverLord 
A  NMF  OMNIPomf 
+  Novell  NMS 

X  Open  System  Foundation  DME  Migration 
SunConnect  SunNet  Manager 
)  Ungermann-Bass  NetDirector  Solutions 
O  Unix  Systems  Labs  Distributed  Manager 


Distributed  Manager™  solves  the  problem 
of  managing  users,  software,  printing, 
data  backup  and  the  myriad  of  administra¬ 
tive  tasks  across  distributed  systems. 
1  -800-828-UNIX 
§/+XO 


WOLLONGONG  — 

Wollongong's  PathWay  networking 
products  give  users  of  desktop  computers 
access  to  computing  resources  over  any 
departmental  LAN  or  corporate  network. 
1  -800-872-8649 


SMS  Network  Management 
Systems  Management 
Automation 
Enterprise  Integration 
NetWare  to  VMS 
Network  Simulation 
Power  Management 
RMON  Agents 
Security 
SNMP  v2 
Trouble  Ticketing 
Unix  Management 


SPECTRUM  is  Cabletron  Systems'  protocol 
independent  management  system  For 
proactive  monitoring  and  control  of 
multi-vendor,  enterprise-wide  networks. 
603-332-9400 
▼  ■  ,Y*Xt 


EcoSystems 

ttrl  Software,  Inc.  =r 

EcoSystems  provides  integrated  systems 
management  software  for  client-server 
computing.  Manage  relational  databases, 
UNIX  computers,  and  networks  from  a  cen¬ 
tral  console.  1 -800-368-4ECO 
■  X* 


NETWORK 


The  critical  first  step  in  Enterprise 
Management  is  problem  control.  Paradigm 
automates  your  workflow  process, 
providing  an  effecti  ve  resolution  strategy. 
1-206-646-1898 
■  /A+»  9 


♦  Sun 


Sun  Microsyctams  Computer  Corporation 

As  part  of  the  COSE  specification, 
Federated  Services  integrates  enterprise¬ 
wide  naming,  filing,  security  services  and 
networking  in  heterogeneous  environ¬ 
ments.  1-415-336-6755 


|  \ortheust  ('.onsultuif:  Hrsourcf’s.  Iru  . 
|  Boston  Massachusetts 


Developing  enterprise  wide  network  and 
system  strategies  and  architecture  to  help 
users  and  vendors  create  dynamic  compet¬ 
itive  advantage.  1 -61 7-570-0780 


C0MPUTIRW0RLD 

The  weekly  newspaper  for  Information 
Systems;  delivering  news,  application 
information  and  product  reviews  for  IS  pro¬ 
fessionals  responsible  for  implementing 
new  technologies  in  their  organization.  For 
subscriptions  call:  1  -800-669-1002 


•Candle 


Making  systems  perform  with  OMEGACEN- 
TER  open  enterprise  management  with 
OMEGAMON*  analysis,  OMEGAVIEW’ 
status  displays,  and  Automated  Facilities™. 
1-800-332-3235 
IX 


Fibronics 


Fibronics  provides  Interview  NMS  for 
enterprise  network  management;  PowerMIB 
development  toolkit  for  integrating  third 
party  SNMP  devices;  and  intelligent  hubs 
and  FDDI  solutions.  1 -800-327-9526 


1NOVELL 

NetWare  Management  System  for  multi 
vendor  networks  provides  an  integrated 
ell 


Novelf 


nd 


scalable,  system  using 
third  party  developed  management 
applications.  1-800-554-4446 

■  A  O 


^SynOptics 


SynOptics  provides  customers  with 
powerful  distributed  solutions  for 
managing  intelligent  hub-based  enterprise 
networks  running  Ethernet,  Token-Ring, 
FDDI  or  ATM.  1 -800-PRO-NTWK 
■  +  * 


’Hi's 


NM  Forum,  a  consortium,  sponsors 
OMNIPo/nf,  a  multi-technology,  multi- 
domain  blueprint  for  end-to-end  service 
management  of  LAN/WAN  Networked 
Information  Systems.  1-908-766-1544 


The  Open  Software  Foundation  is  a  non¬ 
profit  software  research  and  development 
organization  working  to  further  open  sys¬ 
tems  development  and  adoption.  Call  OSF 
Direct  Channels,  1 -61  7-62  I -7300. 


m  C  H  I  P  C  0  M 

Our  fault-tolerant  intelligent  switching  hubs 
and  other  networking  products  are  specifi¬ 
cally  designed  for  facility  networks  — 
building  or  campus  wide  —  without  failure 
or  downtime.  1-508-460-8900 
•■  :</x* 


m 


HEWLETT 

PACKARD 


HP  and  HP  OpenView  Solutions  Partners 
deliver  180  integrated  management  solu¬ 
tions  that  give  you  management  control  of 
the  networked  systems  in  your  enterprise. 

1-800-637-7740 

■  A+X 


olicom 


Olicom's  interoperable  solutions,  including 
Token-Ring  bridges  and  hubs,  support 
enterprise-wide  networking  with  built-in 
management  features  and  5NMP  support. 
1-214-423-7560 


' CENTER 

Building  standards-based,  object-oriented 
management  solutions  for  today's  enter¬ 
prise  systems  and  for  the  transition  to  the 
client/server  systems  of  tomorrow. 
1-800-533-5128 
•  A  A+X 


Access  Media  is  an  interdisciplinary  think  tank 
that  takes  a  proactive  role  in  the  marketing 
of  advanced  technologies.  We  implement 
interdependent  marketing  campaigns  that 
accelerate  the  adoption  of  key  emerging 


©  1 993  AcceJi  Med.o  Inc  30 1 5  f 
Coopeiotrvely  funded  by  the  feature 
All  logo  are  »egister€*d  trademarks , 
Photos  couriejy  of  DEC  Netlobs. 


technologies  and  concepts.  These  campaigns 
are  cooperatively  sponsored  by  an  industry's 
leading  vendors,  end  users  and  organizations. 
For  more  information  call  310-450-7941. 


Contact  these  vendors  today 


Name  (Please  print  or  type) 


Company 


City 


Zip 


I  AM  AN: 

□  End  User  □  Reseller 

□  Vendor  □  Other 

IMPLEMENTATION  PLANS: 
O  Evaluating 
O  Planning  to  Implement 
O  Pilot  Program 

□  Implementing 

PURCHASE  INTEREST: 

O  Information  only 
O  Immediate  need 
O  3-6  mos. 

0  6-12  mos. 

O  Budget  Approved 


J  American  Power  Conversion  □ 

J  Applied  Computing  Devices  J 

□  ascom  Timeplex  0 

□  Cobletron  Systems  3 

□  Candle  Corporation  0 

J  Chipcom  Corporation  □ 

□  Cisco  Systems  □ 

□  Comdisco  Systems  J 

J  Data  General  Corporation  J 

□  DEMAX  Software  J 

□  Digital  J 

□  EcoSystems  Software  3 

3  Fibronics  International  J 

J  Hewlett-Packard  Company  3 

3  IBM  Corporation  3 

□  Interconnections  J 

□  J&L  Information  Systems  Q 

□  Landmark  3 

□  NetLabs  □ 

□  Nelworx 


Telephone 


Mail  to:  Access  Media,  c/o  LDI,  19026  72nd  Ave.,  South  Kent,  WA  98032 


Network  Management  Forum 

Northeast  Consulting  Resources 

Novell 

Olicom 

OpenVision 

Open  Software  Foundation 

Platinum 

SNMP  Research 

SSDS 

SunConnect 

Sun  Microsystems 

SynOptics 

Systems  Center 

Technically  Elite  Concepts 

Ungermann-Bass 

UniSolutions 

UNIX  System  Laboratories 
The  Wollongong  Group 
Computerworld 

EM-CW-B 


Bmii ssz 


Please  send  me  additional  information 
on  tools  I  can  order  to  help  educate  and 
enroll  others  in  my  company  on  the  need 
for  an  Enterprise  Management  strategy. 

□  Scripted  presentations  in 
various  formats. 

□  A  full-color  reference 
poster  on  Enterprise 
Management  and  the 
leading  vendors. 

My  company  is  most  interested  in 
receiving  more  information  on: 

□  Systems  Management 

□  Network  Management 

□  J5ME 


Management 


Abridge  too  late? 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  69 

Naomi  Karten,  president  of  Karten  Associates, 
a  Randolph,  Mass.,  management  consultancy 
that  publishes  a  newsletter  on  end-user  com¬ 
puting.  “In  some  organizations,  people  who 
were  the  caretaker  of  the  trivial  are  now  in 
charge  of  some  of  the  important  things  that  are 
mission-critical.” 

Instead  of  concentrating  on  establishing 
guerilla  PC  beachheads  for  fed-up  mainframe 
users,  as  in  the  early  days,  microcomputer  pro¬ 
fessionals  now  work  on  client/server  systems, 
LANs  and  wide-area  networks  and  even  help 
with  the  corporate  data  structure. 

At  the  same  time,  downsizing  has  pushed 
desktop  platforms  and  networks  higher  on  the 
agenda  for  mainstream  computing  groups. 

“In  the  past,  PCs  and  LANs  were  auxiliary 
parts  of  IS,”  says  Steven  Kight,  an  internal  con¬ 
sultant  at  Blockbuster  Entertainment,  Inc.  in 
Dallas.  “Nowall  that’s  changed  180  degrees.” 

The  result  is  that  IS  and  microcomputer  man¬ 
agers,  whose  views  of  computing  have  tradi¬ 
tionally  differed,  now  find  their  missions,  con¬ 
cerns  and  even  roles  converging. 

Lines  blur 

At  Blockbuster,  for  example,  Kight  and  his 
group  handle  PC-specific  tasks  such  as  upgrad¬ 
ing  hardware  to  run  Microsoft  Corp.’s  Win¬ 
dows.  But  they  also  consult  on  issues  that  five 
years  ago  would  have  been  tackled  by  corpo¬ 
rate  IS. 

“For  instance,  we  recently  acquired  a  couple 
of  companies  here  in  Dallas:  Sound  Warehouse 
and  Music  Plus,”  Kight  says.  “Now  we’re  look¬ 
ing  at  the  point-of-sale  systems  for  these  two 
chains,  which  are  PC-based,  and  we’re  provid¬ 
ing  support,  defining  requirements  and  figur¬ 
ing  out  what  the  equipment’s  going  to  be  look- 
ingat.” 

The  expanding  and  blurring  duties  are  evi- 


what’s  your  line? 


PCs  are  now  the  direct  concern  of  a  broad 
array  of  titles.  Only  12%  of  respondents  to 
a  recent  MMA  study  on  user  interfaces 
held  the  title  ‘microcomputer 


Director/Manager  of  IS/MIS/DP 

PC/Microcomputer 
Manager/Coordinator _ 

Systems  Manager/ 
Administrator/Analyst _ 

Network  Systems  Management/ 
LAN  Manager/Administrator 


Computer/PC  Specialist/Analyst 

Director/Manager  of  Technical 
Support/Services/Operators 

Director/Manager  of  Information 
Center/Services 


Assistant  VP/VP 


CIO/VP  of  IS/MIS 


Consultant 


Office/Office  Automation/Office 
Technology  Manager 

Group/Project  Leader 


President/Owner/Partner 


Other  Director/Manager 


Other 

Source:  Microcomputer  Managers  Association,  New  York 

dent  in  a  string  of  new  titles,  including  manage¬ 
ment  services  analyst,  manager  of  end-user 
support  and  business  consultant,  amongmany 
others  (see  chart  above). 

Experience  also  varies  widely:  Some  staffers 
are  noncomputing  professionals,  such  as  engi¬ 
neers  or  accountants,  pushed  into  the  role.  Oth¬ 
ers  are  trained  computer  specialists.  Some  are 
situated  in  business  units;  others  report  to  IS. 

But  regardless  of  position,  background  or  lo¬ 
cation  on  the  organizational  chart,  microcom¬ 


puter  managers  and  traditional  IS  staffers  are 
being  thrust  together  by  spotty  past  perfor¬ 
mance,  sawier  users  and  economic  concerns. 

The  original  PC  revolution  opened  a  Pando¬ 
ra’s  box  that  both  revolutionized  and  trauma¬ 
tized  computing  and  the  way  companies  do 
business.  Today,  high  use  and  huge  spending 
on  PCs  and  networks  have  become  major  con¬ 
cerns  for  many  organizations. 

Support  record  mixed 

Accordingto  a  recent  study  by  consultancy  No¬ 
lan,  Norton  &  Co.  in  Boston,  some  55%  of  all  em¬ 
ployees  in  large  corporations  now  use  personal 
computing  technology.  Some  70%  of  those  are 
connected  to  LANs,  according  to  the  report, 
which  was  commissioned  by  Ford  Motor  Co., 
AT&T  Bell  Labs,  Xerox  Corp.,  Sprint  Corp.  and 
several  other  large  clients. 

Others  have  estimated  that  “shadow  spend¬ 
ing”  on  technology,  especially  PCs,  by  user  de¬ 
partments  in  some  cases  inflates  corporate 
technology  spending  by  up  to  50%. 

“There’s  a  significant  financial  investment 
in  these  assets,  and  they’re  scattered  all  over 
the  enterprise,”  notes  MarkT.  Bolton,  manager 
of  information  technology  at  Square  D  Co.  in 
Knightdale,  N.C. 

“If  I  were  a  CFO  or  a  CEO,  I’d  be  asking  tough 
questions  on  the  size  of  this  investment  and  its 
[return  on  investment].  Forward-thinking  CIOs 
are  realizing  that,  in  fact,  the  total  of  inventory 
and  asset  needs  to  be  managed  comprehen¬ 
sively.  To  do  that,  you  need  some  organization 
or  function  to  make  it  happen,”  he  says. 

Yet  at  the  time  more  efficiency  is  needed,  the 
rapid  spread  of  desktop  and  distributed  com¬ 
puting  is  straining  acquisition,  support,  train- 
ingand  planning  services  to  the  breakingpoint. 

Information  centers,  established  by  some 
companies  to  handle  end-user  concerns,  have 
had  mixed  success.  Though  some  did  a  decent 
job  and  managed  to  protect  vital  data,  many 
never  garnered  enough  political  muscle  to  suc¬ 
ceed.  A  more  serious  problem  was  that  many 
IS  groups  initially  considered  end-user  support 
to  be  undefined,  messy  and  insignificant. 

“IS  never  called  the  shots  in  most  compa¬ 
nies,”  says  John  Halloran,  managing  principal 
at  Nolan,  Norton.  “The  power  was  defined  by 
the  end  users.” 

Unfortunately,  Halloran  says,  business  units 
and  their  PC  managers  —  many  of  whom  were 
pushed  into  the  job  with  little  or  no  training — 
frequently  did  poor  jobs. 

This  led  a  1992  Nolan,  Norton  study,  “Manag¬ 
ing  End-User  Computing,”  to  conclude:  “The 
end-user  computing  situation  often  appears 
unmanaged  and  out  of  control. . . .  Particularly 
when  viewed  from  the  traditional  IS  perspec¬ 
tive,  the  environment  appears  to  have  taken  on 
an  undisciplined,  laissez-faire  life  of  its  own.” 

Users  help  one  another 

In  this  environment,  nontechnical  users  often 
remain  frustrated;  many  are  turning  to  non¬ 
technical  peers  for  help. 

Unfortunately,  according  to  Nolan,  Norton, 
that  has  also  created  an  invisible  but  huge 
problem.  The  consultancy  estimates  that  the 
average  large  firm  spends  $12,000  to  $16,000  in 
hidden  PC  support  costs  per  year  for  each  desk¬ 
top,  the  result  of  workers  providing  technical 
support  to  co-workers. 

This  financial  pressure  comes  at  a  time  when 
many  end  users  have  become  more  sophisticat¬ 
ed  and  proficient  in  their  use  of  more  affordable 
PCs  and  workstations. 

A  bridge  too  late?,  page  74 


MMA:  Spunky  midget  gets  big 


Is  the  political  visibility  of  the  micro¬ 
computer  manager  increases  in  large 
firms,  so,  too,  the  visibility  rises  of  the 
organization  to  which  many  of  these 
managers  belong. 

“It  started  1 1  years  ago  with  five 
of  us  —  a  user  group,  a  New  York 
PC  user  group,”  says  Priscilla 
Tate,  executive  director  of  the  Mi¬ 
crocomputer  Managers  Associa¬ 
tion  (MMA).  “We  started  out  as 
hackers  managing  about  10  PCs 
apiece  and  soon  grew  to  managing 
about  100  apiece.” 

Now  the  MMA  is  a  national  organization 
with  more  than  2,000  members  and  enough 
political  power  to  influence  vendors  to  do 
things  i  hev  might  rather  not,  she  says.  A  re¬ 
cent  interna  I  survey  showed  that  23%  of 
members  are  responsible  for  more  than  500 
workstation.-.  am:  i •!%  are  responsible  for 
between  100  and  500  workstations. 

It  wasn't  !o  ig  before  the  group  became 
famous  for  its  white  papers.  The  first,  a  1986 
paper  on  corporate  buying concerns,  result¬ 
ed  in  software  upgrades  that  were  easier  to 


administer  and  the  first  major  site-licensing 
of  micro  software.  A 1989  white  paper  on  mi¬ 
crocomputer  standards  spawned  a  vendor’s 
standard  for  “floptical”  technology  that 
greatly  influenced  today’s  wide¬ 
spread  use  of  3-in.  disks. 

In  1991,  MMA  published  a 
gTound-breaking  white  paper  on 
network  software  licensing  that 
prompted  the  adoption  of  an  appli¬ 
cation  programming  interface  for 
metering  software. 

And  last  January,  MMA  pub¬ 
lished  a  white  paper  with  Interna¬ 
tional  Data  Group,  the  parent  corporation  of 
Compute rworld,  on  the  “real”  cost  of  graph¬ 
ical  user  interfaces. 

The  group  has  three  goals:  to  exchange  in¬ 
formation  with  other  members,  to  protect  it¬ 
self  from  the  “hype  of  vendors  and  get  away 
from  consultants  tellingus  what  to  do”  and 
to  “promote  the  growth  of  our  profession  by 
providing  professional  development  semi¬ 
nars,  a  job  bank  and  a  certification  pro¬ 
gram.” 

— Robert  Knight 


Priscilla  Tate 


RESOURCES 

Organizations 


Association  forCom- 
puting  Machinery 

Computerpersonnel 
research,  computer 
personnel  manage¬ 
ment,  training. 

(212)  869-7440 


Microcomputer  Man¬ 
agers  Association 

International  organiza¬ 
tion  focused  on  tech¬ 
nology  management 
issues. 

(908)  585-9091 


Corporate  Association 
for  Microcomputer 
Professionals 

Users  of  PC  software, 
hardware,  networks 
(708)291-1360 


Books and 
articles 


“Management  of  the 
information  center,” 
Journal  of  End-user 
Computing,  Summer 
1992.  IdeaGroup  Pub¬ 
lishing,  Harrisburg,  Pa 


“Information 
resources  manage¬ 
ment  for  end- user  com¬ 
puting:  an  exploratory 
study,”  Journal  of  End- 
user  Computing,  Sum¬ 
mer  1992.  Idea  Group 
Publishing,  Harris¬ 
burg,  Pa. 


“The  effects  of  infor¬ 
mation  centers  on  the 
growth  ofend-user 
computing,”  Informa¬ 
tion  Management, 
Novemberi992.  Auer¬ 
bach  Publishers, 
Boston. 


Managing  the  informa¬ 
tion  center  resource: 
Success  in  end-user 
computing,  Ardnouse, 
Donald  (ed.)  and  Wha¬ 
len,  John  (ed.),i992. 
Loose-leaf  reference 
guide  updated  regu¬ 
larly.  Auerbach  Pub¬ 
lishers,  Boston. 


72  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


distributed  systems  demand 
the  same  level  of  manage¬ 
ment  and  availability  that 
IS  has  historically  provided  in  a  mainframe  environment. 
Yet  the  technical  approach  to  distributed  systems  man¬ 
agement  is  fundamentally  different  from  that  applied  to 
centralized  systems. 

Hardware  and  software  resources  to  be  managed 
tend  to  be  more  numerous,  widely-dispersed  and  pro¬ 
vided  by  a  wide  variety  of  vendors.  Put  simply,  old 
approaches  to  systems  management  cannot  be  incre¬ 
mentally  extended  to  manage  these  new  distributed 
systems.  A  new  approach  is  required. 


Why  A  New  Approach 
Is  Necessary 

When  compared  to  the  centralized  mainframe  envi¬ 
ronment,  tracking  and  intervention  tools  for  distrib¬ 
uted  systems  management  still  appear  somewhat  prim¬ 
itive  -  even  as  the  number  and  variety  of  systems  IS 
professionals  must  manage  is  increasing.  At  the  same 
time,  IS  professionals  are  expected  to  provide  backup 
and  recovery  services,  fault  isolation  and  repair  capa¬ 
bilities,  and  updating  procedures  that  provide  levels  of 
service  similar  to  those  users  have  come  to  expect 
from  centralized  systems.  These  demands  all  threaten 
to  increase  administrative  and  support  expenses.  And 
if  these  systems  are  poorly  managed,  there’s  a  real 
chance  such  expenses  may  actually  erase  the  cost 
reductions  achieved  through  downsizing. 

Effective  distributed  systems  management  addresses 
these  issues.  It  provides  the  considerable  business  benefits 
of  distributed  computing  within  a  context  that  allows  for 
effective  management  of  IT  resources  and  costs. 

What  You  Can  Do  Today 

►  Implement  remote  management  solutions  that 
bring  the  problem  to  the  troubleshooter,  not  the 
other  way  around. 


Meeting  the  new  demands  pdM 
by  Distributed  Computing 


Workstation 


Terminal 


The  Benefits 

A  strong  distributed  systems  management  policy  will  result  in  the  same  level  of  production-quality  service 
provided  by  traditional  mainframe  operations.  Distributed  systems  management  allows  for  growth  in  tM; ...... 

number  of  managed  systems  while  reducing  support  requirements  and  lowering  costs.  It  increases  system 
availability,  security  and  integrity.  It  provides  remote  systems  management,  which  in  turn  provides  an  enteCr . 
prise-wide  perspective,  the  more  effective  use  of  limited  support  resources,  and  the  basis  for  higher  levels  of 
automated  management. 


►  Develop  organizational  consensus  on  an  enter- 
prise-wide  open  management  platform  that  can 
interface  with  your  legacy  systems  and  newer  distrib¬ 

►  Take  an  application-oriented  view  towards  the 
utilization  of  system  resources.  This  allows  you  to 
target  your  management  focus  on  areas  likely  to 

legacy  systems  are  likely  to  play  a  key  role  in  mis¬ 
sion-critical  applications  for  many  years  to  come. 

V  I'M 

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The  following  companies  are  lead¬ 

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Management 


A  bridge  too  late? 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  72 

“Five  years  ago,  [end  users]  were  taking 
mainframe  financial  reports,  inputting  them  to 
a  spreadsheet  program  and  running  an  analy¬ 
sis.  Ail  they  had  to  learn  was  how  to  do  a  simple 
download,”  says  Bruce  Linker,  assistant  vice 
president  at  the  Group  Information  Technology 
Division  of  Dean  Witter  Reynolds  and  president 
of  the  MMA.  “Now  people  are  learning  to  write 
macros  in  the  accounting  department.” 

Culture  clashes 

While  cooperation  between  end-user  comput¬ 
ing  managers  and  IS  is  improving,  the  funda¬ 
mental  pride  of  each  profession  is  still  evident. 


at  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Transportation  Au¬ 
thority  in  Boston,  compares  the  plight  of  his 
peers  with  IBM’s  plight.  “They  had  to  make  the 
shift  slowly  and  painfully,  but  in  the  end  they 
set  themselves  up  pretty  well  with  the  way 
they’ve  spun  off  their  Personal  Systems  group 
and  their  OS/2  group.  That’s  the  way  it’s  going 
to  happen  throughout  the  industry.” 

Optimism  and  infrastructure 

Despite  rapidly  changing  roles,  PC  managers 
continue  to  express  pride  and  optimism  in  their 
profession  and  its  importance  to  the  firm. 

“I’m  in  the  right  part  of  the  business  at  the 
right  time,”  Dunn  says. 

Linker  agrees  that  downsizing  has  “solidi¬ 
fied  our  jobs,”  noting  “there  are  more  PCs  out 
there,  more  end  users.  We’re  not  just  limited 
anymore  to  teaching  people  to  use  shrink- 


who  should  do  what? 


To  maximize  effectiveness,  organizations 
are  advised  to  make  clear  distinctions 
between  technology  providers  and  end 
users.  In  this  model,  distinctions  between 
IS  and  PC  managers  blur. 


■ 


make  it  work  use  it  effectively 

Design  the  infrastucture 

Hook  it  ail  together 

Diagnose  technical  problems  domain  of  business 

Manage  the  LAN 

How  do  I  sort  column  C? 

What’s  new  that  may  help  me? 

Is  this  software  right  for  my  problem? 

domain  of  IS  Where  will  I  find  the  data  I  need? 

How  should  I  present  this  data? 

What  does  this  data  mean? 


Source:  Nolan,  Norton  &  Co.,  Boston 


As  a  result,  some  worry  that  deep  cultural 
differences  could  harm  both  groups  and,  ulti¬ 
mately,  blunt  corporate  efforts  to  maximize 
PCs’  use. 

Roland  Michaud,  a  supervisor  of  network 
services  at  Pacific  Telecom,  Inc.  in  Vancouver, 
Wash.,  says  an  old-fashioned  “programmer 
mentality”  that  clings  to  old  methods  can  put 
mainframers  at  odds  with  micro  people. 

“Programmers  tend  to  want  to  hold  off  as 
long  as  they  can.  They’re  uncomfortable  with 
change,”  Michaud  says.  “But  the  micro  world 
changes  almost  daily.” 

It  works  the  other  way,  too,  Karten  notes. 
“People  who  have  been  PC-focused  may  not  un¬ 
derstand  the  bigger  IS  world.”  As  a  result,  Kart¬ 
en,  author  of  the  book  Managing  Expectations: 
Dealing  with  People  Who  Want  More,  Better, 
Faster,  Sooner,  Now!,  says  many  microcomput¬ 
er  managers  need  to  learn  lessons  about  struc¬ 
ture  from  the  mainframe  world. 

Bolton  agrees  that  culture  clashes  are  “the 
toughest  part”  of  bringing  PC  specialists,  IS 
and  end  users  together.  “As  control  has  shifted 
from  an  individual  to  a  centralized  focus, 
there’s  been  a  lot  of  emotional  pain  to  let  go  of 
that  control .  .  .  and  adhere  to  corporate  stan¬ 
dards.  There  have  been  some  tremendous 
struggles  to  gain  control  of  the  assets.” 

Other  problems  loom.  Because  demand  for 
PC  and  client/server  applications  is  high,  many 
end-user,  IS  and  PC  managers  are  inundated 
with  demands  beyond  their  ability  to  cope. 

Michaud  says  the  battle  for  staff  and  re¬ 
sources  is  an  ongoing  challenge.  "The  politics 
can  be  constant,”  he  says.  “It  can  be  a  problem 
. . .  to  stress  the  importance  of  microcomputers 
within  the  organization  vs.  the  attention  given 
to  mainframe  legacy  systems.” 

Wayne  Dunn,  manager  of  end-user  support 


wrapped  application  packages.” 

But  exactly  how  firms  will  decide  to  handle 
PC  support  in  the  future  is  far  from  decided. 

The  MMA’s  Tate,  who  worked  as  a  microcom¬ 
puter  manager  at  Manufacturers  Hanover 
Trust  Co.,  says  the  current  shifts  have  played 
havoc  with  traditional  job  descriptions  but  will 
ultimately  lead  to  newtitles. 

She  says  she  believes  that  the  typical  MMA 
member  is  a  good  model  for  the  future.  Such 
professionals,  Tate  says,  are  “not  just  a  liaison 
between  technical  and  business  people  but  a 
new  breed  of  microcomputer  executive  in  the 
IS  department.” 

Regardless  of  who  does  what,  many  agree 
that  among  the  most  important  near-term 
tasks  will  be  to  plan  and  create  the  information 
and  networking  infrastructure  that  will  let 
widely  scattered  desktop  systems  share  data 
across  the  organization. 

Among  them  is  Steven  Gehlen,  senior  sys¬ 
tems  engineer  at  Nike,  Inc.  in  Beaverton,  Ore. 
The  issue  “isn’t  so  much  a  matter  of  a  challenge 
from  the  end-user  standpoint  as  it  is  a  chal¬ 
lenge  to  build  the  infrastructure”  to  support 
the  new  direction,  Gehlen  says. 

Future  roles  fuzzy 

Exactly  who  will  do  what  toward  that  end  re¬ 
mains  unclear. 

Though  no  one  seems  sure  of  exact  figures, 
t  here  are  relatively  few  microcomputer  manag¬ 
ers  in  the  U.S.  Too  bad,  because  Halloran  esti¬ 
mates  that  firms  could  save  about  $3,000  in  an¬ 
nual  support  costs  for  each  PC  by  employing  a 
microcomputer  manager. 

“That  means  if  you  have  100  PCs,  you’re  sav¬ 
ings  million  bucks,”  he  says.  “It’s  hard  to  show 
people  the  savings  because  you  have  to  convert 
them  to  some  kind  of  [full-time  equivalent],  and 


that’s  hard  to  do.” 

At  the  same  time,  the  role  of  traditional  IS  in 
supporting  end  users  appears  to  be  actually  di¬ 
minishing,  according  to  Nolan,  Norton. 

Right  now,  both  groups  tend  to  tackle  differ¬ 
ent  corners  of  the  challenge,  the  consultancy 
says.  IS  is  typically  involved  with  less  struc¬ 
tured  tasks  such  as  managing  performance, 
planning  for  and  acquiringresources  and  iden¬ 
tifying  demand.  In  contrast,  microcomputer 
managers  tend  to  be  concerned  with  operation 
activities  such  as  troubleshooting,  help  desk 
calls  or  software  and  equipment  installation. 

Companies  are  experimentingwith  different 
approaches.  Square  D,  which  has  about  3,000 
PCs  in  its  two  divisions  and  corporate  head¬ 
quarters,  is  now  recentralizing  PC  control.  The 
manufacturer  also  tries  to  better  integrate  mi¬ 
crocomputers  by  running  a  PC  component 
through  every  function. 

“For  any  project  to  support  a  business  or 
user  environment,  we  always  have  a  PC  group 
involved  with  it.  We  have  integrated  that  func¬ 
tion  throughout,”  Bolton  explains. 

The  next  step,  he  says,  is  to  begin  central 
tracking  of  PC  assets,  which  company  officials 
say  they  hope  will  simplify  budget  planning  for 
business  units. 

Although  the  past  decade  has  seen  many 
huge  changes  for  microcomputer  managers, 
one  thinghasn’t  changed:  the  passion  for  PCs. 

“If  anyone  believes  for  a  moment  that  they’re 
going  to  be  living  well  in  the  mainframe  world 
10  years  from  now,”  Kight  says,  “they’re  kid¬ 
ding  themselves.” 

How  well  former  PC  revolutionaries  and  tra¬ 
ditional  IS  can  get  together  in  this  new  down¬ 
sized  world  will  undoubtedly  make  or  break  the 
futures  of  both  groups.  ■ 

Free-lance  writer  Robert  Knight  contributed 
to  this  article. 


Don’t  get 
no 

respect? 


Consultant  Naomi 
Karten  offers  some  tips 
on  how  to  get  more 
end-user  respect: 


Blow  your  own  horn. 

“PC  managers  have 
traditionally  not 
recognized  the 
importance  oftracking 
the  value  ofwhat  they 
doand  keepingitin 
front  ofthe  eyes  of  the 
powers  that  be.  So 
they  are  looked  upon 
as  doing  busy  work.” 


Acknowledge  reality. 

“Talk  openly  with 
users  about  the 
demand  you  are 
experiencing  instead 
offeelingthatyou  have 
to  make  everybody 
happy  all  ofthe  time. 
They  have  to 
understand  that  there 
are  expectations  on 
both  sides.” 


Learn  the  business. 

“It’s  importantto  be 
able  to  understand 
what  a  day  in  the  life  of 
a  useris  like.” 


FirstLine  blurs  IS  and  users 


There  are  IS  departments 
with  high-profile  PC 
teams.  Then  there’s  Ja¬ 
net  Wilson  and  FirstLine 
Trust.  In  her  shop,  it’s 
hard  to  tell  the  program¬ 
mers  from  the  users. 

Midway  through  a  seven- 
year  downsizing  project,  the 
Toronto-based  mortgage  bank 
is  pursuing  a  strategy  that 
blurs  the  traditional  roles  of  IS 
and  end  users.  The  company 
runs  on  350  networked  PCs, 
with  a  Digital  Equipment  Corp. 
VAX  available  via  gateway. 

Wilson,  vice  president  of  in¬ 
formation  technology  at  the 
bank,  says  the  more  inter¬ 
changeable  the  roles  are,  the 
faster  the  company  can  change. 
“You’ve  got  users  in  IS  and  IS  in 
the  user  community.  It’s  a  really 
fuzzy  line  sometimes  as  to 
whether  some  of  them  are  users 
or  programmers,”  Wilson  says. 

For  example,  she  says  many 
IS  staff  members  could  easily 
be  called  users.  “They  work 
with  the  development  team  on 
functional  specifications  and 


testing,”  she  says. 

The  group  is  organized  into 
“pods”  that  include  members  of 
the  business  units.  IS  compen¬ 
sation  is  linked  to  how  well  end 
users  receive  the  systems. 

Wilson  says  teaminglike  this 
lets  users  work  in  a  looser  envi¬ 
ronment.  “We  don’t  need  such 
a  highly  structured  IS  depart¬ 
ment  now,”  she  says.  “We’re 
much  more  fluid  and  able  to 
cope  in  a  business  environ¬ 
ment.” 

What  makes  this  mix  possi¬ 
ble?  She  attributes  it  to  chang¬ 
ing  skills,  not  new  job  descrip¬ 
tions.  “We  have  internal  IS 
people  with  business  skills,  and 
managers  of  user  groups  have 
an  understandingofwhat  ma¬ 
chines  can  do  for  them.” 

The  result?  A  business  that 
can  think  on  its  feet.  “I  truly  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  closer  a  business 
person  can  look  like  an  IS  per¬ 
son  and  vice  versa,  the  better 
off  you  ’re  going  to  be  and  the 
faster  you’re  goingto  change,” 
she  says. 

—  Carol  Hildebrand 


74  Computerworid  May  31,  1993 


NETWORK  MANAGEMENT 


Ensuring  flexibility,  consistency 
and  reliability 


•  '  '  Ycv*s. 


What  Is  Open  Network  Management? 

To  manage  today’s  multi-vendor  networks  and  to  be  ready  for  tomorrow’s  needs,  your  enterprise  must 
have  an  open,  standards-based  network  management  approach.  Key  standards  are  the  Simple  Network 
Management  Protocol  (SNMP),  the  Common  Management  Information  Protocol  (CMIP)  and  the  OSF  Distributed 
Management  Environment  (DME). 

The  platform  needs  to  be  open,  multi-vendor  and  interoperable;  and  it  must  accommodate  existing 
approaches  and  managed  devices  along  with  new  devices  and  management  tools. 

Keeping  all  components  of  the  network  under  control  requires:  remote  monitoring  and  control  of  the  vari¬ 
ous  multi-vendor  devices  throughout  the  network,  open  management  interfaces  to  carrier  network  services, 
and  detailed  instrumentation  of  key  performance  parameters  in  network  and  media  elements. 


_  ven  if  your  network  copes 

J  with  your  enterprise  needs 
V  now,  is  it  prepared  to  han¬ 

dle  the  way  your  organization  will  move  and  use 
information  tomorrow?  Your  network  will  need  to  sup¬ 
port  applications  far  more  complex  and  powerful  than 
those  you're  using  today.  And  it  will  need  to  do  this 
flexibly  and  reliably,  across  organizational  and  geo¬ 
graphic  boundaries. 

Without  an  integrated,  open  approach  to  network 
management,  building  and  managing  a  network  that 
will  evolve  successfully  to  meet  these  demands  is 
impractical.  Without  effective  network  management, 
cost  control  is  impossible. 

The  Benefits 

Networks  have  become  a  crucial  determinant  of 
enterprise  efficiency  and  competitiveness,  which  is 
why  effective  network  management  is  now  more 
essential  than  ever  to  the  health  and  success  of  your 
organization. 

Network  availability,  for  example,  is  essential  to 
mission-critical  applications  such  as  customer  service, 
inventory  management,  EDI  and  product  develop¬ 
ment.  Network  management  enables  consistent,  reli¬ 
able  network  service  that  organizations  can  depend 
on.  An  integrated  network  management  approach  will 
enable  your  enterprise  to  quickly  respond  to  requests 
for  new  services  to  meet  evolving  business  needs. 
This  is  especially  crucial  in  a  period  when  use  of  net¬ 
work-based  applications  is  growing  rapidly. 

Integrated  network  management  provides  a  founda¬ 
tion  for  higher  levels  of  automation  of  administrative 
and  operational  tasks.  It  also  improves  responsiveness 
to  user  needs  while  substantially  lowering  support 
costs.  Integrating  your  network  management  solution 
into  a  broader  enterprise  management  strategy  is  far 
more  cost-effective  than  investing  in  closed,  vendor- 
specific  solutions  on  an  ad  hoc  basis.  And  it  provides 


!>  "  . 

■■ 

your  IS  department  with  the  information  necessary  to 
track  costs  and  optimize  network  resources  while 
maintaining  desired  service  levels. 

What  You  Can  Do  Today 

►  Address  network  management  from  a  strategic 
perspective.  Ad  hoc  solutions  and  their  incompatibili¬ 
ties  will  ultimately  cripple  your  network. 

►  Choose  an  open  platform  for  managing  your 
enterprise  network  that  is  compatible  with  other 


enterprise  management  choices.  Gradually,  eliminate 
proprietary  management  interfaces,  instead  choosing 
new  equipment  based  on  open  standards  such  as 
SNMP  and  CMIP. 

►  Place  standards-based  management  agents  on 
existing  network  devices. 

►  Make  the  use  of  open  management  protocols  a 
requirement  for  new  network  purchases. 

►  Acquire  management  tools  and  applications  for 
networks  that  integrate  with  the  open  management 


platform  you  choose. 

►  Favor  object-oriented  network  management 
solutions. 

Contact  the  leading  vendors  listed 
here  for  more  information.  They  are 
committed  to  helping  you  implement 
an  integrated  management  approach 
to  building  and  managing  open,  inter¬ 
operable,  multi-vendor  networks. 


SOURCES  OF  NETWORK  MANAGEMENT  SOLUTIONS 


SPECTRUM  is  Cabletron  Systems'  protocol- 
independent  management  system  for  proac¬ 
tive  monitoring  and  control  of  multivendor, 
enterprise-wide  networks.  1  -603-332-9400 


(Candle 

Making  systems  perform  with 
OMEGACENTER™  open  enterprise  manage¬ 
ment  with  OMEGAMON  ®  analysis, 
OMEGAVIEW'  status  displays,  and 
Automated  Facilities™.  1  -800-332-3235 

©  1993  Access Media  Inc  301 5 Mom  Si  Suite  390  Sonia/ 


nitlSilini 


CiscoWorks  —  a  comprehensive  series 
of  SNMP-based  router  management 
applications  —  enables  users  to  easily 
manage,  monitor  and  administer  Cisco 
internetworks.  1  -800-553-NETS 


comDi/co 

SYSTEMS.  I  \C 

BONeS®  software  to  design,  analyze,  and 
predict  network  performance.  Use  actual 
traffic  data  from  HP  OpenView,  SunNet 
Manager,  LAN  analyzers.  1  415-574-5800 


a  CA  90405  Cooperatively  funded  b 


POLYCENTER  solutions  provide  integrated 
multivendor  network  management.  Digital 
supports  SNMP,  OSI  CMIP,  NetWare,  SNA, 
and  many  other  network  components. 
1  -800-332-INFO  ext.  POLY 


Networking  offerings  from  IBM  are  based  on 
our  SystemView  strategy  of  providing  inte¬ 
grated,  multivendor  solutions  to  your  current 
and  future  network  management  needs.  Call 
us  at  1-800-IBM -6676  (x685) 


NETWORK 

The  critical  first  step  in  Enterprise 
Management  is  problem  control  Paradigm 
automates  your  workflow  process,  provid¬ 
ing  an  effective  resolution  strategy 
1-206-646-1898 


fySunConnect 

SunNet  Manager  and  the  largest  number  of 
third  party  management  applications  avail¬ 
able,  provide  system  managers  with  distrib¬ 
uted  management  solutions  lor  complex  het¬ 
erogeneous  networks  1 -800-241 -CONX 


rr.  systems 
mJ  CENTER 

Providing  standards-based,  object-oriented 
solutions  for  network  management,  and  for 
automated  software  and  data  distribution 
in  mulfivendor,  distributed  systems. 
1-800-533-5128 


WOLLONGONG 

PathWay  Management  Station  is  a  TCP/IP 
network  management  product  that  supports 
SNMP  with  a  unique,  client-server,  distrib¬ 
uted  architecture.  1  800-872-8649 


ACT  NOW! 


Contact  these  leading  vendors 
today  to  learn  more  about  their 
Network  Management  products 
and  services.  A  coupon  to  request 
information  from  these  vendors  is 
included  with  the  Enterprise 
Management  advertisement  earlier 
in  this  issue. 


For  an  additional  copy  of  that 
coupon  please  call  Access  Media  at 
310-450-7941. 


Management 


The  Shadow 
knows 


If  you  aren’t 
afraid  of  your 
shadow,  may¬ 
be  you  should 
be. 

Several  in¬ 
formation  sys¬ 
tems  execu¬ 
tives  have  recently  described  to 
me,  in  eerily  similar  terms,  IS-like 
structures  that  seem  to  be  lurking 
just  outside  their  field  of  vision. 
They  say  they  don’t  have  a  clear 
view,  but  they  knowwhat’s  out 
there  —  individuals  and  groups  in 
business  departments  performing 
end-user  support  and  business 
analysis  functions  —  and  they 
sense  that  these  “shadow  organi¬ 
zations”  are  growing  rapidly. 

These  executives  usually  has¬ 
ten  to  add  that  they  don’t  have  a 
problem  with  others  picking  up  a 
burden  that,  for  a  variety  of  rea¬ 
sons,  they  haven’t  been  able  to 
handle.  Someone  has  to  do  it,  and 
they  don’t  have  the  time  or  the 
money  or  even  the  expertise  in 
their  operations. 

Top  executives  won’t  loosen  the 
purse  strings  enough  to  cover  the 
hiringof  staff  for  end-user  train¬ 
ing,  one  IS  executive  explains. 
“They  say, ‘What’s  so  difficult?  Tell 
them  to  read  the  manual.’  ”  And  as 


for  using  existing  IS  staffers. . . . 
Well,  truth  be  told,  in  many  cases 
the  end  users  already  know  more 
than  they  do. 

It’s  pretty  clear  why  business 
departments  aren’t  waiting 
around  for  instructions  from  IS 
central.  What  isn’t  so  clear, 
though,  is  what  kind  of  role  is  going 
to  be  left  for  IS  personnel  when 
these  shadow  organizations  have 
dug  in,  filled  out  and  become  more 
real  to  business  departments  than 
the  folks  with  the  official  titles. 

Those  of  you  in  the  top  echelon 
probably  don’t  have  much  toworry 
about.  If  all  the  action  moves  out 
from  under  your  existing  struc¬ 
ture,  you  can  probably  get  a  diplo¬ 
mat-type  posting  out  in  the  new 
heartland,  handlingborder  dis¬ 
putes  and  coordinating  high-level 
policy  initiatives.  The  underlings 
may  not  be  so  lucky. 

In  a  recent  article,  “The  Future 
Role  of  the  CIO,”  published  in  a 
company  newsletter,  CSC  Index, 
Inc.  principals  Leslie  Ball  and  Su¬ 
san  Falzon  predicted  that  during 
the  remainder  of  this  decade,  “IS 
people  will  be  relied  upon  less,  vic¬ 
timized  in  part  by  the  very  technol¬ 
ogies  they  advocate.”  The  authors 
go  on  to  suggest  that  IS  organiza¬ 
tions  will  have  to  become  flatter, 
more  flexible  and  more  entrepre¬ 
neurial. 

In  some  places,  that  scenario  is 
already  reality. 

Be  prepared 

My  best  guess  is  that  anyone  who 
wants  to  stake  out  a  secure  place 
in  the  technology  structure  of  his 
organization  had  better  move 
quickly  because  the  ranks  of  the 
shadow  IS  groups  are  filling  rapid¬ 


ly.  Some  IS  professionals  maybe 
able  to  slide  into  the  remaining 
slots — those  who  are  smart 
enough  to  be  networking  now. 

It  won’t  be  easy,  and  it  will  prob¬ 
ably  mean  making  some  detours 
into  unfamiliar  areas.  It  will  also 
mean  striking  up  conversations 
with  strangers.  And  it  will  mean 
spendingextra  hours  learningthe 
ins  and  outs  of  PC  and  network  op¬ 
erating  systems  and  applications. 
Like  old  age,  however,  it  is  proba¬ 
bly  better  than  the  alternative. 

Stand  where  you  are,  rubbing 
your  eyes  and  waiting  to  see  if 
those  shadows  are  phantoms  or 
real,  and  you’ll  be  flattened  by  a 
very  real  new  cadre  of  technical 
experts. 

Howbiga  threat  is  this,  really? 
No  one  knows  exactly  because 
these  folks  aren’t  on  any  official  IS 
census.  They  don’t  necessarily 
have  identifyingtitles,  and  they 
don’t  stick  their  heads  into  IS  de¬ 
partments  because  they  don’t 
think  those  departments  have 
anything  they  need. 

The  very  idea  of  end  users  with 
delusions  of  self-sufficiency  is 
p  retty  hair-raising  for  any  career- 
minded  IS  staffer.  But  what’s  even 
more  sobering  is  that  these  know- 
it-alls  seem  to  be  right.  The  people 
who’ve  started  to  notice  these  de¬ 
velopments  haven’t  been  alerted 
by  screams  for  help  but  rather  by 
the  small  rustlings  of  distant  activ¬ 
ity. 

If  you  haven’t  heard  those 
sounds  yet,  listen  harder.  That’s 
the  future  taking  shape  out  there 
in  the  shadows. 


Kelleher  is  Computerworld' s  features 
editor. 


Executive  T rack 


Patricia  M.  Woolsey  is  now  Washington  Gas’  senior  vice 
president  in  charge  of  information  systems,  human  re¬ 
sources  and  corporate  communications. 

Woolsey  is  a  23-year  veteran  of  the  Washington,  D.C.- 
based  utility.  She  most  recently  served  in  the  capacity  of  vice 
president  and  general  manager  of  the  company’s  Virginia 
division. 

At  United  States  Trust  Co.  in  New  York,  Philip  S.  Felice 
has  been  promoted  to  vice  president.  Felice,  who  has  been 
at  the  financial  services  company  since  1985,  is  a  manager 
in  the  systems  development  department  of  the  Computer 
Services  Division.  He  is  responsible  for  cost-effective  sys¬ 
tems  development  and  support. 

Three  executives  helping  to  steer  AMR 
Corp.’s  newly  minted  IS  subsidiary  Sabre 
Technology  Group  have  been  elected  vice 
presidents  of  American 
Airlines. 

Wearing  the  new  titles 
are  Terrell  B.  Jones, 
president  of  the  group’s 
Sabre  Computer  Ser¬ 
vices  unit;  Jeffrey  G. 

Katz,  president  of  the 
Sabre  Travel  Information  Network;  and 
Bruce  D.  Parker,  president  of  Sabre  Devel¬ 
opment  Services. 

Carol  E.  Chamberlain  is  the  new  associate  dean  of  techni¬ 
cal  services  and  systems  development  for  university  librar¬ 
ies  at  Northeastern  University  in  Boston. 

In  her  new  post,  Chamberlain,  who  formerly  served  as 
chief  of  the  acquisitions  department  at  the  Pennsylvania 
State  University  Libraries,  is  responsible  for  the  Northeast¬ 
ern  library’s  computerized  support  operations,  holdings 
and  information  resources  and  services. 

In  Livingston,  N.  J.,  The  CIT  Group,  Inc.  recently  promoted 
John  J.  Fischer  from  vice  president  to  senior  vice  president 
of  systems  and  technology.  A  joint  venture  of  The  Dai-Ichi 
Kangyo  Bank  Ltd.  and  Chemical  BankingCorp.,  The  CIT 
Group  is  an  asset-based  finance  company. 


Password  pluckers 

Anyone  who  has  ever  forgotten  a  computer 
password  will  be  happy  to  know  that  a  new 
breed  of  software  is  beingsold  over  the  counter 
to  bail  out  forgetful  users  and  their  network  ad- 
ministrators.  However,  the  password-cracking 
utilities  have  an  obvious  downside  if  they  fall 
into  the  wrong  hands. 

When  the  author  installed  one  “password 
plueker,”  the  on-screen  menu  offered  options 
such  as  “reveal  user  names  and  passwords” 
and  “reveal  forgotten  file  passwords  and/or  de¬ 
crypt  file.”  He  selected  the  latter  option,  and 
the  program  found  the  password  in  four  sec¬ 
onds. 

Source:  "Password  Pluckers  for  Sale”  by  Robert  K,ane,  Infosecuri- 
tyNews,  May/June  1993. 


Jargon-free  reports 

Chief  information  officers  often  need  to  write 
business  reports  to  justify  or  promote  an  infor¬ 
mation  technology  project.  When  the  report  is 
going  to  general  managers,  it  should  focus  on 
business  issues  and  keep  the  technology-relat¬ 


ed  information  to  a  minimum. 

Stamp  out  jargon,  reduce  acronyms  to  an  ab¬ 
solute  minimum  and  translate  technical  infor¬ 
mation  into  plain  English. 

Source:  "Writing  Reports  That  Work”  by  Edward  Wakin,  Beyond 
Computing,  March/April  1993. 


Client/server  telephony 

Most  of  the  action  in  computer/telephone  inte¬ 
gration  has  been  on  mainframe  computers  or 
private-branch  exchanges.  But  the  architec¬ 
tural  wave  of  the  future  will  be  client/server  call 
processing,  which  will  have  standard  inter¬ 
faces  to  Microsoft  Corp.  Windows-based  soft¬ 
ware  and  will  thus  put  telephony  applications 
in  the  hands  of  desktop  PC  users. 

One  of  the  long-term  advantages  of  client/ 
server  call  processing  is  the  ability  to  share  ex¬ 
pensive  resources  among  many  users. 

Source:  Sing,  April  1993. 


RAM  violation 

Caution:  Loading  copyrighted  software  into  the 
random-access  memory  of  a  computer  is  the 
equivalent  of  creating  a  copy  of  that  software 
and  thus  violates  federal  copyright  law.  So 
ruled  the  Ninth  IJ.S.  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals  in 
MAI  Systems  Corp.  v.  Peak  Computer,  Inc. 
Source:  "Intellectual  Property  Update,”  The  National  Law  Journal, 
May  3, 1993. 


Calendar 

JUNE6-JUNE  12 


Equipment  Resources  Planning  Institute.  Washington,  D.C.,  June  7-8  —  Contact: 
Equipment  Resources  Planning  Institute,  Santa  Monica,  Calif.  (3 1 0)  394-2997. 

JUNE  13-JUNE  19 


Seventh  Netron  Users  Conference.  Toronto,  June  13-16  —  Contact:  Leslie  Connell, 
Netron,  Inc.,  Toronto,  Canada  (416)  636-8333. 

Enterprise  Network:  Building  and  Managing  for  Change.  Boulder,  Colo.,  June 
13-18  —  Contact:  International  Communications  Association,  Dallas,  Texas  (214) 
233-3889. 


The  Outsourcing  Conference.  San  Francisco,  June  14-15  —  Contact:  Digital  Consult¬ 
ing,  Inc.,  Andover,  Mass.  (508)  470-3880. 

Client/Server  World.  Boston,  June  14-16  —  Contact:  Digital  Consulting,  Inc.,  Andover, 
Mass.  (508)  470-3880. 

Electronic  Messaging ’93.  Atlanta,  June  14-17 — Contact:  Electronic  Mail  Association, 
Arlington,  Va.  (703)  875-8620. 

International  Teleconferencing  Association  Conference  '93.  Washington,  D.C.,  June  14- 
17  —  Contact:  International  Teleconferencing  Association,  Washington,  D.C.  (202) 
833-2549. 


76  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


itj/the  emergence  of  distrib¬ 
uted,  multi-vendor  comput¬ 
ing  environments,  the  cre¬ 
ation  of  a  standards  framework  to  facilitate  their 
effective  management  became  a  top  priority.  As  a 
result,  leading  vendors,  working  through  the  Open 
Software  Foundation  (OSF),  have  developed  a  set  of 
open,  vendor-neutral  standards  known  as  Distributed 
Management  Environment  (DME). 

DME  was  conceived  to  get  the  most  out  of  today’s 
advanced  distributed  computing  technologies,  open 
standards,  interoperability  and  object-oriented  tech¬ 
nologies.  Its  standardized  framework  represents  an 
industry  consensus  on  application  program  interfaces 
(APIs)  and  protocols  for  open  management.  DME  is  a 
‘living’  standard,  evolving  as  technologies  evolve, 
enhancing  the  latest  industry  developments. 


Why  DME  Works 

DME  builds  on  existing  standards.  It  is  not  an 
alternative  to  other  standards.  Rather,  it  represents  a 
complementary  approach  that  encompasses  existing 
SNMP  and  CMIP  standards  and  endorses  interfaces 
devised  by  the  Network  Management  Forum,  X/Open 
and  others. 

DME  is  the  product  of  a  multi-vendor,  consensus- 
based  process.  As  a  result,  DME  maps  to  your  comput¬ 
ing  environment  and  manages  growth  in  multi-vendor 
systems  and  networks.  And  because  DME  is  the  prod¬ 
uct  of  industry  consensus,  it  accelerates  the  process  of 
reaching  consensus  within  your  organization. 

DME  is  based  on  a  comprehensive  set  of  require¬ 
ments  developed  through  an  open,  industry  process 
to  meet  specific  objectives  and  address  real  needs. 

DME  is  vendor  neutral.  It  enhances  competition  in 
the  management  market.  This  will  result  in  lower 
costs  and  better  solutions  for  users. 


Distributed  Management  Environment 


A  consensus-based  solution  to  the  creation 
of  universal  management  standards 


Systems 

Management 


Network 

Management 


Applications 


Systems 


Network 

Devices 


The  Benefits 

DME’s  wide-ranging  benefits  include: 

►  A  scalable,  distributed  architecture  that  can 
accommodate  growth  in  multi-vendor  networks  and 
distributed  systems. 

►  Better  management,  interoperability  and  inte¬ 
gration  through  the  implementation  of  common 
management  services  and  standardized  protocol  and 
object  definitions. 

►  Reductions  in  time  and  costs  for  system 
administration  and  training. 


►  Tightly  integrated  solutions  utilizing  object- 
oriented  design,  for  easier  and  more  flexible  inte¬ 
gration  of  scalable,  distributed,  multi-vendor 
architectures. 

►  Greater  longevity  of  systems  resulting  from 
standards-based,  backwards  compatibility. 

What  You  Can  Do  Today 

No  matter  where  you  are  in  the  development  of 
your  network,  we  suggest  evaluating  DME  as  you 
build  your  enterprise  management  strategy.  Portions 


of  the  DME  will  be  available  during  1993  from  a 
number  of  vendors.  Complete  implementations  of 
DME  will  begin  appearing  in  1994. 

Contact  the  Open  Software 
Foundation  for  more  information  on 
DME  and  how  it  can  provide  you  with  a 
framework  for  managing  growth  in  a 
multi-vendor  systems  and  networks. 
Or,  contact  these  leading  vendors  who 
have  committed  to  supporting  DME. 


SPECTRUM  is  Cabletron  Systems'  protocol- 
independent  management  system  for  proactive 
monitoring  and  control  of  multivendor,  enter¬ 
prise-wide  networks.  1  -603-332-9400 


iw  Data  General 

Providing  the  tools  to  build  your  enterprise 
management  foundation.  For  information,  call 
your  local  Data  General  sales  office  or 
1 -800-DATA  GEN. 

©  1993  Acceji  Media  Inc,  30 15  Mam  Si  Suite  390.  Santa  Moo.co,  < 


POLYCENTER  products  deliver  DME  vision 
today,  and  provide  the  quickest  path  to  full 
DME  compliance.  They  provide  open  integrat¬ 
ed  systems  and  network  management. 
1  -800-322-INFO  ext.  POLY 


What  HEWLETT 
mi£M  PACKARD 

HP  OpenView  technologies  provide  key  compo¬ 
nents  of  the  DME.  As  tne  fast  path  to  DME,  HP 
OpenView  is  the  right  choice  for  solving  your 
network  and  systems  management  problems 
today.  1  -800-637-7740 

>  Cooperatively  Funded  by  the  featured  companies  All  logos  ore  registered 


IBM  products  designed  to  use  the  DME 
standards  through  the  SystemView  framework 
provide  effective  management  solutions  that 
adapt  to  your  evolving,  multivendor  distrib¬ 
uted  computing  environments  Call  us  at 
1 -800-IBM-6676  (x685) 

NetLabs 

NetLabs  is  the  leading  independent  supplier  of 
standards-based  network  management 
solutions  providing  management  platforms, 
development  environments,  and  integrated 
applications.  1-800-447-9300 


The  Open  Software  Foundation's  Distributed 
Management  Environment  (OSF®DME)  is 
enabling  technology  that  simplifies  the 
management  of  stand-alone  and  distributed 
computer  systems.  1  -61 7-62 1  -7300 


OPENVISION. 

OpenVision  products  and  services  overcome 
the  barriers  to  deploying  production  applica 
tions  in  distributed  environments  by  addressing 
operations,  performance,  storage  and  security. 
1-510-426-6400 


JPIf  SYSTEMS 
mJ  CENTER 

A  DME  Technology  Provider  leading  the  systems 
management  industry  in  applying  advanced 
technologies  to  ease  your  transition  to 
client/server  environments  1  -800-533-51  28 


To  learn  more  about  these  DME  supporters  con¬ 
tact  them  today.  A  coupon  to  request  informa¬ 
tion  from  these  vendors  is  included  with  the 
Enterprise  Management  advertisement  earlier 
in  this  issue. 

For  an  additional  copy  of  that  coupon  please 
call  Access  Media  at  3 1 0-450-794 1 . 


IMAGINE  A  COMPUTER  SYS 
THIS  PIECE  OF  HARDWA 


The  problem  with  most  com-  about  a  replacement.  OpenVMS  is  fully 

puter  systems  is  that  they’ve  We  think  that’s  garbage,  upgradable  and  scalable 

already  reached  their  peak  especially  when  you  con-  through  Alpha  AXP,  the  leader- 
levels  the  day  they  arrive  at  sider  the  costs  oi  software  ship  RISC  architecture 


your 

site. 


Open  VAIS  maizes  oleo/eecence  oleo/ete. 


designed 
for  the 


The  re’s  little  you  can  do  to 
improve  speed,  power  or  func- 
tionality,  and  within  a  few 

xl 

years,  you  have  to  think 


conversion  and  user  retrain¬ 
ing.  And  we  proudly  offer  an 
alternative  -  our  OpenVMS 
environment. 


next  25  years.  A  technology  so 
advanced,  Alpha  AXP  lets  you 
implement  the  system  today 
and  not  have  to  worry  about 


©  1993  Digital  Eq  uipment  Corporation.  The  Digital  logo,  Alpha  AXP  and  Open  VMS  are  trademarks  o!  Digital  Equipment 


TEM  THAT  WON'T  REQUIRE 
RE  IN  FIVE  OR  SIX  YEARS. 


changing  it.  In  alliance  with 
OpenVMS,  it  also  delivers  a 


quantum  leap  in  pri 
performance  and  functionality, 
as  well  as  interoperability 
wi  th  open  systems  through 
compliance  with  X/Open 
and  POSIX  standards. 

This  is  in  addition  to 


ice/ 


ment’s  easy-to-use  software, 
best  development  tools,  over 
10,000  existing  applications 
and  its  power  to  work  w  ith 
other  computer  systems  you 
may  already  have  -  from  Macs 
-  to  mainframes. 

Which  means  an 
OpenVMS  system  keeps 


the  OpenVMS  environ-  AXP  your  existing  computers 


off  the  scrap  heap  as  well, 
making  it  as  attractive  to 
management  as  it  is  to  MIS. 
And  prompting  you  to  throw 
out  only  one  thing  -  your 
preconceptions  about  how 
computer  companies  wo  rk. 
Call  1 -800-DIGITAL,  touch  2 


and  ask  for 
ext.  69 J. 


Corporation.  X/Open  is  a  trademark  of  X/Open  Company  Ltd.  Mac  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Apple  Computer,  Inc. 


When  vou  oversee  the  most  technologically  advanced 
race  in  the  world,  the  engine  is  running  long  before 

the  race  starts.  Massive  amounts  of  data 
need  to  be  collected.  Everything  from 
entry  fees, 
qualifying 
times  and 

speeds  to  engine  serial 
numbers  and  driver  and 
crew  information.  Then 
all  the  data  collected  dur- 


that 


PCs 


ing  the  race  needs  to  be  compiled 
so  the  results  can  be  validated. 

At  the  world’s  most  famous 
motor  speedway,  mission  critical 
is  a  way  of  life.  That’s  why  the 
United  States  Auto  Club  (USAC®) 
and  the  Indy  500"  have  a  com- 
puter  system  with  the  horsepower 
to  get  the  job  done.  And  OS/2  "  is 
the  driving  force  behind  it. 

With  true  pre-emptive  multi¬ 
tasking  and  multithreading 
capabilities,  OS/2  helps  USAC 
process  Indy  500  data  at 
record  speeds.  In  fact  at  this 
year’s  I  ndy,  USAC  is  testing 
an  OS/2-based  system  that 
tracks  cars  via  radio  signal. 

In  1994,  OS/2  will  drive  the 


official  timing  and  scoring  system, 
and  determine  the  actual  winner  of 
the  race. 

Whether  you  measure  speed 
in  MPH  or  MHz,  OS/2  brings 
the  same  high  performance  to  all  your  DOS, 
Windows™  and  OS/2  applications.  And  our  soon- 
to-be -released  Version  2.1  will  be  even  more 
powerful.  To  find  out  how  OS/2  can  help  your 
386  and  486  machines  run  on  all  cylinders,  call 
1  800  3-IBM-OS2* 

Operate  at  a  higher  level. 


the 

Indy 500. 


•In  Canada  call  l  800  465  7999 

IBM  and  OS/2  are  '■  ?red  trademarks  of  International  Business  Machines 
Corporation  lnd>  500  r  ?.  reg.stered  trademark  of  IMS  Corp  Windows  is  a  trademark 
of  Microsoft  Corpoi  .or.  USAC  is  a  registered  trademark  of  the  United  States  Auto 
Club  £  1993  IBM  Corp 


EVELOPMENT 


Rapid  application  development 

METHODS  CAN  SPEED  SYSTEMS 
DELIVERY  BY  AS  MUCH  AS  1,300%. 
But  most  companies  get  0% 

IMPROVEMENT  BECAUSE  THEY  TALK 
ABOUT  CHANGING  TOOLS,  NOT 
TECHNIQUES. 


By  W.  Burry  Foss 

any  information  systems  groups 
would  kill  to  speed  up  applica¬ 
tion  development  even  a  little  bit. 
After  all,  getting  applications  to 
users  faster  is  less  expensive 
and  means  happier  customers 
and  coders. 

That’s  why  when  companies 
such  as  a  Houston  division  of  a 
$104  billion  energy  company  talk  about  25%  in¬ 
creases  in  delivery  of  components  for  $20  mil¬ 
lion  and  $30  million  systems,  IS  chiefs  want  to 
know  how. 

Rapid  application  development  (RAD)  meth¬ 
ods,  that’s  how. 

As  its  name  implies,  RAD  helps  get  systems 
out  faster,  through  a  combination  of  speedy  de¬ 
sign  iterations,  data  modeling,  user/developer 


Foss  is  a  senior  associate  at  the  management  consult- 
ingpractice  of  International  Systems  Services  Corp.  in 
Stamford,  Conn. 


teamwork  and  automated  development  tools. 
In  fact,  some  proponents  claim  25%  faster  de¬ 
livery  is  on  the  conservative  side,  with  500% 
and  1,300%  increases  possible  for  some  firms. 

Unfortunately,  I’m  going  to  have  to  burst 
some  bubbles  here.  Most  companies  using  RAD 
will  have  little  or  no  increase  in  their  delivery 
times  because  they  fundamentally  misunder- 
stand  what  RAD  is  about.  RAD  isn’t  about  fancy 
automated  tools  but  about  signifi¬ 
cantly  rethinking  development 
methodologies  and  management 
techniques.  The  idea  is  to  acceler¬ 
ate  learning  so  developers  can  use 
new  techniques  for  business  good. 

RAD’s  success  depends  on  companies  adopt¬ 
ing  ideas  such  as  the  following: 

•Incremental  delivery  of  system  compo¬ 
nents.  The  system  never  gets  delivered  in  its 
entirety.  The  first  component  comes  out  in 
three  to  four  months  and  the  rest  at  three-  to 
six-month  intervals.  No  deliveiy  takes  longer 
than  six  months. 

•Teamwork.  Developers  work  in  teams,  and 
teams  work  closely  with  business  users,  show- 


ingusers  timely  iterations  before  finalizingthe 
design. 

•Achievable  goals.  Workers,  not  manage¬ 
ment,  set  deliverables,  which  are  goal-driven. 
•Less  waste.  With  an  eye  toward  innovation, 
developers  work  to  eliminate  unnecessary 
steps  in  the  system  development  methodology. 
For  instance,  the  energy  company  developed  a 
template  for  on-line  screen  generation  in  its 
first  delivery  and  reused  it  to  repli¬ 
cate  extra  screens  in  later  releases. 

Bigbangisbust 

Contrary  to  popular  belief,  using 
whiz-bangtools  in  development  can 
actually  extend  delivery  time.  That’s  because 
you  just  can’t  drop  new  tools  into  a  rigorous, 
linear  way  of  defining  requirements,  designing 
systems  and  building  them  and  expect  them  to 
work  miracles.  The  1970s  “big'bang”  approach 
to  systems  implementation,  in  which  all  func¬ 
tionality  is  delivered  at  one  time,  isn’t  working. 

For  instance,  one  company,  which  planned  to 
deliver  its  real-time  process  control  software 
Development,  page  83 


PRODUCTIVITY  UP,  COSTS  DOWN 


Average  number  of  function 
points*  per  man-month  for 
Cobol  developer 

12 

Average  number  for 
developer  using  RAD 

18  to  80 


Average  development  cost 
per  Cobol  function  point 

$500  to  $1,000 

Average  cost  per  RAD 
function  point 

$50  to  $100 


’  i  function  point  =  105  lines  Cobol  code 


Sources:  Function  Point  Analysis  (Prentice-Hall,  1989);  James  Martin  and  Co.;  Data  Based  Advisor  (October  1992). 


interview  with 

JAMES  MARTIN 
PAGE  83 


COMPUTERWORLD  MAY  31,  1993 


81 


The  new  32-bit  1-2-3  and  Freelance  Graphics 
for  OS/2.  Every  bit  as  powerful  as  the  system 
they’re  designed  for. 

The  new  1-2-3  Release  2  and  Freelance  Graphics 
Release  2  you’ve  been  waiting  for  are  here.  These  are  the 
only  major  applications  made  specifically  for  OS/2"  to 
unleash  the  full  power  of  32-bit  architecture.  And  designed 
to  put  OS/2  users  in  business  like  never  before. 

With  1-2-3  and  Freelance  Graphics, 
you  can  finally  have  it  all. 

All  the  power  of  the  world’s  leading  spreadsheet. 
Plus  all  the  simplicity  of  the  top  presentation  graphics 
program.  Plus  all  the  things  you  wanted  OS/2  for  in 
the  first  place.  Like  multitasking,  multithreading, 
drag-and-drop  support,  and  the  Workplace  Shell 1 
(which  you  won’t  find  using  DOS  or  Windows"' 
applications  on  OS/2). 

BYTE  Magazine  proclaims:  “[Lotus®  1-2-3  and 


Freelance  Graphics]  borrow  from  the  best  features  of 
their  DOS  and  Windows  counterparts,  while  bringing 
out  the  best  of  Big  Blue’s  32-bit  operating  system?*  In 
fact,  there’s  no  other  software  that  optimizes  OS/2  like 
these  two. 

1-2-3  and  Freelance  Graphics  also  offer  innovative 
features.  Like  Smartlcons™  easy  one-click  shortcuts  to 
your  most  frequently  used  functions.  Unique  integration 
so  seamless  you’ll  think  you’re  working  with  one  program 
instead  of  two.  And  hotlinks  that  automatically  update 
data  from  one  program  to  the  other. 

Two  great  applications.  No  waiting. 

Of  course,  to  truly  appreciate  the  power  of  1-2-3  and 
Freelance  Graphics  for  OS/2,  you  should  see  them  for 
yourself.  Just  call  1-800-TRADEUP,  ext.  8834,"*  for  a 
free  1-2-3  for  OS/2  demo  disk,  or  for  more  information 
on  Freelance  Graphics  and  1-2-3. 

And  find  out  how,  together,  1-2-3  and  Freelance 
Graphics  create  a  win-win  solution  for  everyone  on  OS/2. 


1-2-3  and  Freelance  Graphics 

Spreadsheet  and  Presentation  Graphics  for  OS/2 


1  i:i  i  la.  ( ali  l-BtMKJO-LDTlK  OPJ93  Lotus  Development  Corporation,  55  Cambridge  Parkway,  Cambridge,  MA  02142.  .All  rights  reserved.  Lotus,  1-2-3  and  Freelance  Graphics  are  registered  trademarks  and  Smartlcons  is  a  trademark 
i  >f  Lotus  Development  Corporation.  OS/2  us  a  registered  trademark  and  Workplace  Shell  is  a  trademark  of  International  Business  Machines  Corporation.  Windows  is  a  trademark  of  Microsoft  Corporation. 


In  Depth:  Fast,  Faster,  Fastest  Development 


RAD 

VS. 

TRAD 

RAPID  APPLICATION 

TRADITIONAL 

DEVELOPMENT 

DEVELOPMENT 

(interactive) 

(linear) 

•  Information  engineering 

•  Requirements  planning 

(enterprise/data  modeling) 

•  Systems  analysis 

*1 

•  External/lntemal  fixed  design 

•  Joint  design 

Heavy 

user/coder 

•  Programming 

interaction 

•  Interactive  prototyping 

and  use  of 
automated 

•  Testing 

First  release 

development 

tools 

Full  implementation 

3  MONTHS 

4 

18  MONTHS 

OR  LONGER 

•  Subsequent  releases 

Development 

CONTINUED  FROM  PAGE  81 

all  at  once,  had  to  terminate  the 
project  after  repeatedly  failing  to 
meet  its  delivery  deadlines.  At  the 
point  at  which  the  company  halted 
work,  the  system  was  18  months 
overdue. 

“Using  RAD  in  an  IS  setting  is  a 
formidable  challenge  because  our 
discipline  expects  precision,  rigor 
and  tools  to  be  the  solution,”  says 
Bob  King,  a  RAD  sponsor  at  The 
Travelers  Corp.  in  Hartford,  Conn. 
RAD  has  been  in  use  at  Travelers 
since  1990. 

The  Houston  energy  company, 
for  its  part,  broke  a  pattern  of 
changing  requirements  and  ex¬ 
tended  delivery  schedules  by  al¬ 
tering  the  rigid  70s  ways  of  man¬ 
aging  projects.  It  instead  adopted 
RAD  and  its  management  tech¬ 
nique  of  delivering  systems  incre¬ 
mentally,  in  releases. 

The  oil  company’s  IS  team  set 
initial  “breakthrough”  goals  in 
which  developers  finished  core  ap¬ 
plications,  such  as  a  tax  subsys¬ 
tem  for  natural  gas  accounting, 
early.  The  developers  could  then 
focus  on  creating  remaining  piec¬ 
es  of  such  a  system  more  quickly 
—  pieces  that  contained  important 
functionality,  such  as  interfaces  to 
the  general  ledger  and  accounts 
payable  system. 

Th  is  proj  ect ,  which  was  slated  to 


last  one  year  from  the  start  of  con¬ 
struction,  took  seven  months  — 
four  months  for  the  first  core  sys¬ 
tems  with  remaining  pieces  re¬ 
leased  three  months  later. 

What  is  most  striking  about  this 
case  is  that  developers  did  not  use 
cutting-edge  tools.  The  fanciest  IS 
got  was  an  applications  generator 
that  made  code  production  easier. 
Otherwise,  developers  worked 
with  conventional  technologies 
such  as  Cobol.  The  concentration 
was  on  understanding  business 
requirements,  applying  database 
technology  and  learning  how  to 
work  effectively  in  teams. 

Developers  at  the  Virginia  De¬ 
partment  of  Taxation  opted  to 
keep  things  simple  as  well.  They 
created  the  organization’s  mas¬ 


sive  tax  accounting  system  —  a 
synthesis  of  1,500  programs  and  40 
databases  —  by  coupling  conven¬ 
tional  third-generation  language 
and  database  technology  with 
RAD  management  techniques. 
Currently,  users  wait  no  more  than 
a  year  for  any  new  functionality. 

IS  personnel  say  the  project 
thrived  because  they  focused  on 
setting  aggressive  but  achievable 
goals  and  ensuring  new  functions 
every  three  to  six  months. 

Under  the  gun 

IS  continues  to  be  under  pressure 
to  deliver  systems  more  quickly, 
and  even  phased  waterfall  propo¬ 
nents  may  turn  in  desperation  to 
RAD  to  satisfy  critical  business 
needs.  In  this  way,  RAD  has  sprung 


up  in  small  pockets  in  many  orga¬ 
nizations,  even  though  these  com¬ 
panies  haven't  openly  embraced 
it.  It  is  in  these  renegade  groups 
that  RAD  gets  its  best  public  rela¬ 
tions;  if  it  works  there,  it  is  more 
likely  to  find  a  home  in  the  organi¬ 
zation  at  large. 

At  Travelers,  for  example,  IS  in 
one  of  its  insurance  divisions  was 
under  extreme  time  pressure  to 
deliver  business  applications.  Be¬ 
cause  delivery  took  an  average  of 
18  months  using  traditional  devel¬ 
opment  methods,  the  group  turned 
to  RAD  hoping  to  capitalize  on 
automated  development  tools.  In 
the  long  run,  the  tools  became  in¬ 
cidental  as  the  group  came  to  rely 
heavily  on  teamwork,  involved 
business  partners  and  the  cre¬ 
ation  of  risk-taking,  team-based 
decision-making  in  IS. 

Today,  this  group  is  using  RAD 
to  aid  in  enhancing  applications 
and  is  delivering  pieces  in  three  to 
six  months.  While  the  company  is 
still  not  using  such  methods  for  its 
mainstream  development  activi¬ 
ties,  King  says,  RAD  acceptance  is 
growing  steadily. 

Face  it:  Old  habits  die  hard.  But 
RAD  can  help  to  significantly  in¬ 
crease  development  productivity, 
as  long  as  IS  groups  approach  it  as 
a  new  way  to  manage  develop¬ 
ment,  concentrating  on  teamwork 
and  a  project  orientation.  Other¬ 
wise,  no  software  tool,  no  matter 
how  advanced,  is  going  to  make 
any  difference.  • 


Slow  burn 


Don't  let  employee 
burnout  burn  down 
your  RAD  effort. 
Quality  specialists  who 
look  at  work  activity 
say  the  average 
professional  spends 
6o%ofhisdayon 
productive  activity. 
With  RAD,  this 
increases  to  more  than 
8o%,  creating  anxiety 
and  feelings  of 
overwork  that  can 
ultimately  undermine  a 
project. 

Manage  to  make  stress 
reducers,  like  breaks, 
part  of  the  plan.  After 
all,  speedy  work  is  an 
accomplishment,  not  a 
punishment. 


INTERVIEW 

James  Martin:  ‘You  are  taking  a  terrible  risk 
if  you  don’t  do  fast  development’ 


James  Martin,  the  so-called 
“Father  of  CASE,  "says  he  be¬ 
lieves  one  of  the  biggest 
myths  about  RAD  is  that  it 
can  be  done  only  with  small 
syste?ns.  Martin,  chairman  of 
James  Martin  and  Co.  inRes- 
ton,  Va.,  and  a  frequent  speak¬ 
er  and  author,  says  that,  in 
fact,  large  systems  are  at  risk  if  they 
don’t  use  RAD  techniques.  He  recently 
spoke  with  senior  editor  Lory  Dix 
about  this  and  other  RAD  issues. 

Q.  How  can  RAD  be  applied  to  large, 
mission-critical  business  applications 
development? 

A.  What  you  do  is  split  the  very  big,  com¬ 
plex  application  into  small  pieces,  with 
each  piece  a  RAD  in  its  own  right.  I  like  to 
call  those  multi-RAD  projects.  Each  piece 
would  be  finished  in  three  months  and  be 
highly  visible  to  the  businesspeople.  You 
would  use  GUI  prototyping  duringthe 
requirements  planning  stage.  You’d  do 
requirements  tracing  from  the  business 


requirements  to  code  modules  (with  CASE 
tools  to  help).  You’d  appoint  a  software 
repository  coordinator  to  make  sure  all  the 
different  pieces  fit  together. 

I’ve  seen  it  done  with  large  systems  —  2 
million  lines  of  code. 

People  say  bringing  in  RAD  is  a  risk.  I’m 
saying  the  opposite  —  you  are  taking  a  ter¬ 
rible  risk  ifyou  don’t  do  fast  development. 

Q.  Do  you  have  any  examples  of  what 
happens  when  you  don’t  use  RAD  for  targe 
projects? 

A.  One  bad  example  happened  just 
recently  at  the  London  Stock  Exchange. 
The  exchange  tried  to  build  a  system  called 
Taurus,  which  would  enable  it  to  get  all  the 
share  certificates  into  electronic  image 
form.  It  was  completely  redesigning  what 
goes  on  in  the  stock  exchange.  They  were 
using  conventional  systems  development 
methodologies,  and  it  ended  up  a  total 
catastrophe.  After  about  five  years  of  work, 
it  didn’t  happen. 

Total  losses,  including  those  to  banks  and 
brokers,  were  more  than  $i  billion. 


The  London  Stock  Exchange  chairman  re¬ 
ferred  to  the  software  in  this  instance  as  an 
“invisible  palace.”  How  could  anyone  know 
what  developers 
were  doing  when 
the  software  was  in¬ 
visible? 

Ifthey  had  bro¬ 
ken  the  project  into 
small  pieces,  build¬ 
ing  each  piece  in 
three  months  and 
makingitall  highly 
visible  usingGUI 
prototyping,  they 
might  have  avoided 
this  catastrophe. 

Q.  Is  RAD  appli¬ 
cable  in  all  cases? 

A.  The  life  cycle  is 
much  more  appli¬ 
cable  to  business  systems  than  engineer¬ 
ing  systems.  Code  generators  don’t  work 
very  well  for  scientific  computing  because 
ofthe  heavy,  complex  iogic  requirements. 


Q.  What  are  the  most  common  mistakes 
you  see  companies  making  when  it  comes 
to  RAD? 

A.  Lack  of  training  is 
a  problem.  You’ve 
got  to  understand 
that  this  is  not  just 
iterative  prototyp¬ 
ing  but  a  life  cycle 
that  information 
technology  people 
need  training  in. 

Usingpoortools 
is  another  problem, 
as  is  mismanage¬ 
ment.  This  life  cycle 
needs  to  be  man¬ 
aged  professionally, 
like  an  engineering 
discipline. 

Lastly,  people 
won’t  let  go  of  old 
life  cycles.  Everybody  in  the  British  govern¬ 
ment,  for  instance,  wants  to  do  the  SSADf'  " 
[development  methodology],  and  that  just 
doesn’t  work  for  fast  development. 


Computerworld  May  31, 1993  83 


Teams  are  n;  hierarchy  is 

Self-managed  IS  work  teams  help  build  the  skills 
necessary  to  survive  in  flattened  organizations 


By  Joe  Panepinto 


BUZZWORDS  COME  and  buzzwords  go, 
but  work  must  still  get  done.  At  least 
that’s  the  view  from  those  on  the  front 
lines  —  the  information  systems  person¬ 
nel  who  are  required  to  pay  homage  to 
the  latest  management  trend  and  still  de¬ 
liver  quality  service  to  in¬ 
creasingly  impatient  end 
users  and  customers. 

Lately,  fashionably  up-to- 
date  IS  organizations  have 
been  touting  the  effective¬ 
ness  of  self-directed  work 
teams.  These  groups  of  IS 
personnel  span  functional 
and  technical  areas  and  are 
responsible  for  doing  their 
work  with  little  or  no  man¬ 
agement  supervision. 

But  working  in  self-di¬ 
rected  work  teams  can  be  a  mixed  bag  in 
terms  of  career  direction,  opportunity 
and  day-to-day  responsibilities.  It  can  be 
jarring  for  the  uninitiated,  but  for  those 
who  have  already  worked  in  teams,  it’s  a 
chance  to  garner  new  skills  that  help  in 
flattened  organizations  where  fewer 
clearly  defined  career  tracks  exist . 

“We  more  or  less  set  our  own  work 
pace;  we  don’t  have  to  report  to  a  manag- 


Pancpinto  is  a  free-lance  writer  based  in  Am¬ 
herst,  Mass. 


er  on  a  regular  basis,  and  we  deal  direct¬ 
ly  with  our  clients,”  says  Jim  Petro, 
knowledge-base  coordinator  at  LTV 
Steel  Co.  in  Cleveland. 

Petro  is  a  veteran  member  of  an  eight- 
person  data  administration  team  that 
has  members  at  three  LTV  sites  and 
serves  the  data  modeling  needs  of  more 
than  300  people.  To  Petro, 
while  working  in  an  IS  team 
has  meant  more  job  satis¬ 
faction  because  of  the  au¬ 
tonomy  it  affords,  it  has  also 
meant  more  responsibility. 

Petro  and  each  member  of 
the  team  are  responsible  for 
the  database  modeling,  de¬ 
sign  and  coding  for  roughly 
15  databases.  They  are  also 
responsible  for  hashing  out 
the  duties  of  each  team 
member  at  a  weekly  meet- 
ingrun  bya“manager  of  theweek.” 

Expect  to  broaden  skills 

In  addition  to  accepting  more  responsi¬ 
bility,  team  members  must  also  widen 
their  skill  set  to  include  technological  ex¬ 
perience,  communication,  team-building 
and  consensus-oriented  skills.  These 
skills  enable  IS  members  to  move  hori¬ 
zontally  on  different  technical  tracks  or 
vertically  on  the  few  existing  managerial 
tracks,  says  Nick  Vitalari,  a  consultant  at 
CSC  Index,  Inc.  in  Cambridge,  Mass. 


“We’ve  seen  a  significant  flattening  of 
our  organization,”  says  Mary  Sitko,  qual¬ 
ity  and  training  manager  at  Dana  Corp., 
a  Toledo,  Ohio-based  automotive  and 
truck  component  manufacturer.  At 
Dana,  there  are  10  IS  teams  in  a  depart¬ 
ment  of  75  employees.  Sitko  says  her  de¬ 
partment  went  from  having  15  supervi¬ 
sors  five  years  ago  to  having  none  and 
from  six  managers  to  four  “coaches”  — 
manager  substitutes  selected  randomly. 
Coaches  are  team  members  with  special 
responsibilities  such  as  having  the  final 
say  in  capital  expenditures. 

But  being  a  coach  does  not  present  a 
clear  step  upward  in  terms  of  career 
path.  In  many  firms,  middle  management 
has  been  largely  eliminated.  As  a  result, 
team  membership  prepares  IS  personnel 
well  for  flattened  career  paths. 

Horizontal  movement  accepted 

“In  the  past,  the  important  thing  was  al¬ 
ways  upward  mobility,”  Sitko  says.  “Now 
it  is  more  acceptable  to  move  horizontal¬ 
ly  to  different  technical  positions.  This 
gives  you  lots  of  breadth  so  you’re  more 
valuable  to  the  company.” 

“Most  organizations  who  go  to  teams 
have  cross-functional  teams  that  allow 
IS  personnel  to  step  out  of  their  narrow 
specialties,”  says  Madeline  Weiss,  presi¬ 
dent  of  Weiss  Associates,  a  Bethesda, 
Md.,  management  consultingfirm. 

Medtronic  Corp.,  a  Minneapolis  maker 
of  implantable  medical  devices,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  has  a  90-member  IS  department 
that  is  currently  organized  into  16  func¬ 
tional  teams  aligned  with  the  company’s 
six  lines  of  business.  Team  members 
may  cross  over  to  other  teams  when  the 
project  load  changes,  says  Tom  Morin, 
vice  president  of  IS.  This  builds  a  valu¬ 


able  knowledge  base. 

Texaco,  Inc.  Research  and  Develop¬ 
ment’s  12-person  computer  systems  and 
networking  team  adds  to  this  knowledge 
base  further  by  instituting  an  employee- 
swap  program  in  which  employees  from 
its  Beacon,  N.Y.,  site  spend  five  to  six 
weeks  working  at  its  Port  Arthur,  Texas, 
site,  and  vice  versa. 

“You  really  need  to  understand  what’s 
going  on  with  everyone’s  end  users  and 
customers  to  communicate  effectively 
within  a  team,”  says  Ralph  Fleming,  a 
team  member  at  Texaco. 

Paradise 
or  purgatory? 

In  the  worst  case,  self-directed 
work  teams  sound  like  some  kind 
of  subcommittee  purgatory.  In  the 
best  instance,  they  sound  like  a 
nonhierarchical  paradise.  In  reali¬ 
ty,  they  fall  somewhere  in  between. 


Positive  outlook 


You’re  developingwider  skill  sets 
in  a  flattened  organization  —  the 
ability  to  come  to  a  consensus, 
form  teams,  solve  problems  and 
adjust  to  newprojects. 


Negative  outlook 


You’re  getting  new  responsibilities 
that  you  never  wanted — dealing 
with  poor  performance,  decision¬ 
making,  budgets,  hiring  and  firing 
decisions,  capital  expenditures 
and  training  decisions. 


TEAMWORK 


20% 


OF  162  IS  DEVEL¬ 
OPMENT  DIRECTORS 
AT  LARGE  COMPANIES 
SURVEYED  ARE 
IMPLEMENTING  SOME 
FORM  OF  TEAM 
ORGANIZATION. 

Source:  1992  CSC  Index,  Inc. 
Survey,  Cambridge,  Mass. 


IS  PROFESSIONALS  | 

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fax  608/284-2050 

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Computerworld 

recruitment 

advertising 

works! 

That's  because 
more  computer 
professionals  read 
more  recruitment 
ads  in  Computer- 
world  than  in  any 
other  newspaper. 

For  more  informa¬ 
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your  ad,  call  Lisa 
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Weekly.  Regional. 
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And  it  works. 

An  IDG  Communications 
Publication 


84  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Computer  Careers 


LAN  administrators 
picking  up  new  roles 


By  Alice  Bredin 

Most  local-area  net¬ 
work  administra¬ 
tors  agree  on  one 
thing;  Their  title  is 
misleading.  During  the  past  few  years, 
they  have  devoted  less  time  to  fixing  LAN 
hardware  and  more  time  to  answering 
users’  questions,  interconnecting  LANs 
and  expanding  their  technology  base. 

At  a  large  multinational  firm  in  New 
Jersey,  for  example,  LAN  administrator 
Keith  Fletcher  used  to  spend  the  major¬ 
ity  of  his  time  keeping  the  network  run¬ 
ning  smoothly.  Now,  with  less  trouble¬ 
some  LANs,  30%  of  his  day  goes  to 
helping  users  —  up  from  10%  during  the 
last  few  years. 

“I  always  had  responsibility  for  soft¬ 
ware  support,  but  because  people  are  us¬ 
ing  more  packages,  it’s  more  of  my  job 
now,”  Fletcher  says. 

LAM  expansion 

The  increase  in  responsibility  also  en¬ 
compasses  the  task  of  expanding  the 
LAN  while  improving  system  perfor¬ 
mance  at  the  same  time.  LAN  adminis¬ 
trators  agree  that  understanding  the 
technology  that  helps  them  increase  effi¬ 
ciency  is  crucial.  The  most  important 
technologies  include  Simple  Network 
Management  Protocol,  protocol  analyz¬ 
ers  and  routers,  bridges  and  gateways. 

Gordon  Craig,  LAN/wide-area  network 
administrator  at  the  Texas  Rehabilita¬ 
tion  Commission  in  Austin,  keeps  up  with 
this  technology  by  spending  60  to  90  min¬ 


utes  anight  readingabout  LANs. 

One  of  the  more  difficult  areas  is  inter¬ 
connecting  departmental  LANs,  LAN  ad¬ 
ministrators  say  —  not  learning  the  ac¬ 
tual  technologies  but  finding  where  to 
acquire  the  skills  to  apply  them. 

“Finding  someone  to  teach  you  about 
these  technologies  is  tough  because  not 
too  many  people  know  them,”  says  Rein 
Hofstra,  LAN  administrator  at  Blue 
Cross/Blue  Shield  of  Florida  in  Jackson¬ 
ville. 

Hofstra  makes  up  for  this  skill  short¬ 
age  by  reading  books  and  getting  practi¬ 
cal  help  from  people  in  other  depart¬ 
ments  who  are  familiar  with  the  topic. 
The  time  frame  for  learning  a  technology, 
he  says,  is  approximately  one  month 
when  he  has  assistance  vs.  up  to  six 
months  when  the  skill  is  self-taught. 

Interplatform  connections 

Wayne  Robertson,  network  administra¬ 
tor  for  corporate  information  systems  at 
Saint  Agnes  Medical  Center  in  Fresno, 
Calif.,  found  himself  in  a  similar  situa¬ 
tion. 

Robertson  is  busy  networking  the  hos¬ 
pital’s  minicomputers,  but  because  there 
are  so  few  resources  for  learning  inter¬ 
platform  connection,  he  visits  compa¬ 
nies  that  have  succeeded  in  doing  the 
same  thing.  “We  copy  other  people,  do 
some  tests  and  make  a  lot  of  mistakes,” 
Robertson  says. 

These  technologies  are  not  difficult  to 
learn,  Robertson  says,  but  finding  the 
time  to  attend  conferences  is  hard.  “If 
you  go  to  all  the  different  conferences 


LAN  administrators:  You’re  not  in  Kansas  anymore 


LAN  administrators  are  less  tied  to  troubleshooting  and  are  building  more  sophisticated  skills 
such  as  network  planning  and  design.  It’s  hard  to  keep  skills  current,  however,  due  to 
inadequate  resources  and  time. 


WHAT  THEY  DID 
TWO  YEARS  AGO 


Verify  backups  on-line 
—  at  least  a  30-minute 
process. 

Install  new  users. 

Expand  LANs  —  plan¬ 
ning  where  and  what 
connections  to  make. 

Add  new  applications 
to  network.  Maintain 
network. 


WHAT  THEY  DO 
TODAY 


■  Verify  backups  via  reports  -  a  shorter  process  due  to 
report  generation. 

■  Check  E-mail  notes  from  users  who  have  had  problems. 

■  Check  with  network  help  desk  about  application  and 
other  user  problems. 

*  Fix  user  problems. 

■  Capacity  planning  —  increase  the  complexity  of  the 
network  by  adding  sophisticated  applications. 


■  Set  up  backups  to  run.  a  Set  up  backups  to  run. 


HOW  THEY  KEEP  UP 


■  Use  the  application 
software  as  much  as 
possible. 

■  Average  1  hour  to  1 1/2 
hours  of  LAN  reading  a 
night— about  20  period¬ 
icals  a  month. 

■  Get  help  from  people  in 
other  departments  who 
have  attended  confer¬ 
ences  or  seminars. 

■  Visit  companies  that 
have  successfully  finished 
similar  projects. 


PAY  SCALE 


$35.ooo 


Position 


Network  administrator 

Keep  the  network  running 
smoothly  by  troubleshooting, 
backing  up,  etc. 


Network  administrator  with 
managerial  responsibilities. 

Project  planning,  systems 
analysis,  limited  staff 
management,  assessment 
of  future  requirements. 


$65,000 


and  seminars,  you  can  end  up  being  out 
of  the  office  30  days  a  year.” 

Finally,  if  you  are  linking  LANs  to  larg¬ 
er  systems,  you  must  familiarize  your¬ 
self  with  how  the  larger  systems  operate. 
Fletcher,  for  example,  mastered  the  IBM 
3270. 

“Because  I’m  pulling  things  off  the 
mainframe,  I  have  to  understand  what 
the  mainframe  offers  users  and  the  type 
of  interface  it  had,”  he  says. 


Fletcher  says  he  wants  to  offer  the 
same  information  on  a  PC,  and  “if  users 
are  used  to  working  with  an  invoice  num¬ 
ber,  I  cannot  suddenly  call  it  a  package 
number.” 

But,  Fletcher  adds,  he  does  not  need  to 
be  a  mainframe  expert. 

“I  don’t  have  to  know  how  to  write 
mainframe  code,”  he  notes. 

Bredin  is  a  free-lance  writer  based  in  New  York. 


CA&AZ 

CONTRACTS 


P.  Murphy  A  Awoclatei.  Inc. 

4405  RIVERSIDE  DR.,  SUITE  100 
BURBANK,  CA  91505 
(818)841-2002  (714)552-0506 
FAX:  (818)  841-2122 

Member  NACCB 


WE’RE  HOT 


And  so  are  the  Suns.  Come  suc¬ 
ceed  with  us  in  Phoenix.  We're 

looking  for  people  with  the  follow¬ 
ing  skills: 

•  IEF,  C 

•  UNIX,  C,  Informix 
(pgmrs.  &  Sys.  Admin.) 

•  CICS  and  UNIX 

•  IMS  DB/DC.  DB2 

•  BANKING  (Sr.  P.A.,  Pjct  leads) 
Depost  or  Credit/Debit  Card 
exp.,  check  proc. 

•  Hogan  Deposit 

•  Oracle  or  Ingres  with  UNIX, 

C,  C++ 

•  AS400  Native/Cobol,  Paradox 

Contact: 


Laurie  Zinker 
4747  N  7th  St  Ste  424 
Phoenix.  AZ  85014 
(602)  279-4498 
or  fax  (6021279  1161 
PROFESSIONAL  SOFTWARE 
CONSULTANTS.  INC 


SENIOR  LAN  SPECIALISTS 

Washington,  DC  ■  Chicago  -  Atlanta  ■ 

San  Francisco 

Sr.  Lan  Administrator(s).  Degree  in  CS  or  Math 
and  4  Yrs  File/Net  Server  experience  as  Administra¬ 
tor/Analyst  with  min.  of  3  yrs  managing  100  user  or 
larger  LAN.  Experience  in  Configuration  Manage¬ 
ment,  server/cable  plant  maintenance,  installations, 
office  automation,  data  base  and  help  desk  manage¬ 
ment  required.  LAN  Manager,  Ungermann-Bass  a 
plus. 

Program  Manager  (Washington,  DC).  BS  and  7 

yrs  large  LAN  (1500  user)  experience  in  transforming 
LAN  into  WAN  with  data/video  communications  inte¬ 
gration  skills. 

Send  Resumes  and  salary  history  to: 

Digital  Systems  Research,  Inc. 

Code:  LAN 

4301  N.  Fairfax  Drive,  Suite  725 
Arlington,  VA  22203 


Opportunities  in 

ENGLAND 

Experienced  SYBASE  developers  are  needed  for  an  exciting, 
long  term  (2  year)  project  in  ENGLAND. 

If  you  have  a  minimum  of  two  years  experience  in  SYBASE 
and  want  to  be  considered  for  these  immediate  (July  93) 
openings,  please  send  or  fax  your  resume  to: 

INTERAL  CORPORATION 
33-41  Newark  Street,  Hoboken,  NJ  07030 

(201)  795-1313  Fax:  (201)  795-9091 


We  SResj^greers  K*« 
advanC  -- 


Here's  a  partial 
listing  of  current  fee-paid 
opportunities.  Contact  our  nearest  member  firm 
&  gain  access  to  ALL  our  choice  openings  in  your  field. 


SYBASE  DBAs  HEAVY  To  S100K+ 
Major  Wall  Street  Firm 
SB  COMPUTER  SCIENTIST  To  S100K 
Relat.  database  architecture 
IDMS  &  DB2  FOR  TECH  SUPPORT 
Major  Investment  Firm  S100K++ 
UNIX/C-H-/00DBMS/R0BMS  To  S80K 
Design  &  implement  with  team 
MGR.  NEW  PRODUCT  DEVELOPMENT 
IVIF,  Mini.  PC,  LAN/WAN  To  S80K 
LEAD  SYS.  INTEGRATION  CONSULT. 
OSF/Networks/EDI/etc.  S70-80K 


CLIENT  SERVER  APPLICS.  To  S75K 
Sybase  Oracle  Visual  Basic 
SR.  COMMUNICATIONS  ANALYST 
LAN/WAN/MAN.  $39,800-67.900 
DATA  ANALYST  &  DBAs  S65K 
DB2  or  ADABAS.  IMS  a  plus 

SYBASE/ORACLE  ROMS.  C  To  S65K 

GUI/GUPTA.  Fin.  Svcs.  a  plus 

SYSADMIN/OPERATION  MGR.S60K 

UNIX  SUN  MACHINES  LANS  WANS 

COMMUNICATIONS  ANALYST 

LAN/WAN/MAN  $32,800-56.000 


SR.  GUPTA  SQL  WINDOWS 

DEVELOPER  S0PEN 
NETWORK  CONSULTANT  To  S55K 

Novell  and  relational  D.B 

IEF  FULL  LIFE  CYCLE  P/A  S55K 

Design  thru  construction 
POWER  BUILDER 
P/As  &  CONSULTANTS  $0PEN 
CICS/DB2  P/As  $50 K 

New  Development  Positions! 

C/WINOOWS  SOFTWARE  ENG.  S50K 

Graphics  strong  development 


UNIX  PROG.  ANY  RELATIONAL  OB 

Manufacturing  req  d.  To  S50K 
AS/400  RPG  &  SYNON  POSITIONS 
2-6  years  exp.  S35-50K 
QA  ANALYSTS  To  S46K 
C++.  Windows:  PC/LAN  Products 
SR.  ANALYST  CREOIT  CARD  S45K 
CICS  Strong  Analysts 
UNIX.  C.  X-WINDOWS  MOTIF  S/A 
High  Tech.  Rapid  Growth  S45K 
AS400.  RPG400  Multi  Openings 
DB  &  Sys.  Design.  Prog  S0PEN 


Call  or  FAX  your  resume  to  our  local  office  nearest  you,  &  put  our  entire  network  to  work  for  you. 


ATLANTA:  Abacus  Networks,  Inc. 

(404)  446-1116  •  FAX  (404)  729-9803 
BOSTON:  The  Kleven  Group,  Inc. 

(617)  861-1020  •  FAX  (617)  861-1047 
CHICAGO:  Career  Consultants,  Inc. 

(708)  663-9780  •  FAX  (708)  663-9784 
CINCINNATI:  Task  Group 
(513)  821-8275  •  FAX  (513)  821-8311 
CLEVELAND:  Innovative  Resources  Corp. 
(216)  331-1757  •  FAX  (216)  331-3499 
COLUMBUS:  Michael  Thomas,  Inc. 

(614)  846-0926  •  FAX  (614)  847-5633 
DALLAS:  DataPro  Personnel  Consultants 
(214)  661-8600  •  FAX  (214)  661-1309 
DENVER:  Abacus  Consultants,  Inc. 

(303)  759-5064  •  FAX  (303)  759-9846 
DETROIT:  Andersen,  Jones  &  Muller  Assoc. 
(313)  827-7660  •  FAX  (313)  827-7665 


GREENSBORO:  DataMasters  (Dept.  CWN) 
(919)  373-1461  •  FAX  (919)  373-1501 
HOUSTON:  Career  Consultants,  Inc. 

(713)  626-4100  •  FAX  (713)  626-4106 
JERSEY  CITY,  NJ:  Systems  Search  M.I.S. 
(201)  761-4400  •  FAX  (201)  761-0128 
KANSAS  CITY:  DP  Career  Associates 
(913)  236-8288  •  FAX  (913)  236-9748 
LOS  ANGELES:  Superior  Resources,  Inc 
(818)  222-1266  •  FAX  (818)  222-1267 
MEMPHIS:  Information  Systems  Group 
(901)  684-1030  •  FAX  (901)  684-1068 
MILWAUKEE:  EDP  Consultants,  Inc. 

(414)  476-3335  •  FAX  (414)  476-7972 
MINNEAPOLIS/ST.  PAUL:  ESP,  Inc 
(612)  337-3000  •  FAX  (612)  337-9199 
NEW  YORK:  Botal  Associates.  Inc. 

(212)  227-7370  •  FAX  (212)  964-5033 


| Ask  for  your  FREE 
copy  of  our  1993  Salary  Survey 


PHILADELPHIA:  Systems  Personnel.  Inc. 

(215)  565-8880  ♦  FAX  (215)  565-1482 
PHOENIX:  Professional  Career  Consultants 
(602)  274-6666  •  FAX  (602)  443-8489 
SAN  DIEGO:  Technical  Directions  Inc. 

(800)  367-1017  •  FAX  (619)  297-6951 
SAN  FRANCISCO:  Professionals  For  Computing.  Inc. 
(415)  957-1400  •  FAX  (415)  957-0166 
SEATTLE:  Houser.  Martin,  Moms  &  Associates 
(206)  453-2700  •  FAX  (206)  453-8726 
ST  LOUIS:  Executive  Career  Consultants  Inc. 
(314)  994-3737  •  FAX  (314)  994-3742 
TAMPA:  Richard  Rita/Michael  James 
(813)  289-3000  •  FAX  (813)  289-8173 


Comp  liter  world  May  31,  1993 


Computer  Careers 


Put  your 

superior 

skills  and 

creativity 

to  the  test 

working 

fora 

software 

market 

leader! 


WordPerfect  Corporation  is  looking  for  individuals  who 
are  seeking  the  rewards  that  come  from  working  in  a 
challenging  environment  and  highly  competitive  indus¬ 
try.  We're  offering  a  competitive  salary  and  benefits 
package  along  with  the  opportunity  to  live  and  work  in 
the  clean  environment  and  scenic  splendor  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

DEVELOPERS 

We're  looking  for  experienced  programmers  with  the  talent 
and  enthusiasm  to  be  part  of  a  team  responsible  for  the  de¬ 
sign,  implementation,  debugging,  and  maintenance  of  Word¬ 
Perfect  products.  A  bachelor's  degree  in  Computer  Science 
(or  related  field),  or  equivalent  educational  and  work  experi¬ 
ence  is  required.  A  minimum  of  four  years  on-the-job  pro¬ 
gramming  experience  is  required.  Applicants  must  have  an 
excellent  knowledge  of  C  programming  language  and  pos¬ 
sess  superior  debugging  skills. 

AREA  MANAGER 

WordPerfect  Area  Managers  are  a  non-commissioned  field 
sales  force  throughout  the  United  States  and  Canada.  Their 
purpose  is  to  promote  the  sales  of  WordPerfect  Corporation 
products  in  their  geographic  area  by  meeting  face  to  face  with 
resellers  and  customers.  Some  objectives  of  the  job  are:  to 
know  our  products,  to  train  resellers  on  the  benefits  of  selling 
our  software,  to  give  product  presentations  to  customers  and 
to  help  carry  out  product  promotions  at  the  field  level. 


FIELD  SYSTEMS  ENGINEER 

Will  provide  technical  expertise  in  the  field  working  with  Area  Managers  primarily  in  a  presale 
mode.  Will  act  as  a  link  in  the  field  between  WPCorp.  and  Third  party  CSE's  and  Systems  Integra¬ 
tors.  Must  have  a  strong  understanding  and/or  experience  with  DOS  and  Windows.  Must  have  an 
excellent  understanding  and  system  administration  experience  with  Novell  Netware.  Experience 
with  other  network  operating  systems  is  also  preferred.  Experience  in  planning  and  installation  of 
both  single  and  multiple  domain  systems  across  multiple  platforms  is  required.  Must  have  back¬ 
ground  with  at  least  two  of  the  following  platforms:  OS/2,  UNIX  (SUN,  RS/6000,  HP9000,  ETC...) 
Macintosh,  VAX/VMS,  DG,  DOS,  AS/400.  Must  have  excellent  presentation  and  communication 
skills.  A  bachelors  degree  or  equivalent  work  experience  is  also  required. 

EDUCATION  ACCOUNT  DIRECTOR 

Will  increase  sales  and  market  share  of  WPCorp  products  in  the  post-secondary  market.  Will  de¬ 
fine  and  implement  sales  strategies  for  the  post-secondary  market.  Will  develop  a  sales/market¬ 
ing  plan  to  reach  accounts  which  are  not  being  targeted.  Will  define  and  coordinate  account  plans 
for  key  and  target  accounts.  Must  be  able  to  analyze  complex  processes,  draw  logical  conclusions, 
and  make  recommendations.  A  minimum  of  five  years  experience  with  the  post-secondary  market 
is  required.  This  experience  may  be  as  an  employee  within  the  market  or  as  a  sales  person  selling 
to  the  market.  A  bachelors  degree  or  equivalent  experience  is  required.  Must  have  strong  writing 
skills.  Excellent  communication  and  interpersonal  skills  are  a  must.  A  good  working  knowledge  of 
the  computer  industry  is  preferred. 

MANAGER  OF  COMPUTER  CONFIGURATION  AND  REPAIR 

We're  looking  for  an  individual  who  is  highly  motivated  and  has  strong  leadership  capabilities  to 
oversee  the  day  to  day  MIS  operations  of  a  multi-million  dollar  computer  configuration  and  repair 
service  and  inventory  control.  A  bachelor's  degree  in  a  related  field  or  five  years  equivalent  experi¬ 
ence  is  required.  Must  have  prior  experience  managing  a  computer  repair  and  logistics  service 
center.  Must  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  multi-platform  hardware,  software,  and  network  oper¬ 
ating  systems  environments.  Applicants  must  have  prior  experience  managing  multi-million  dollar 
budgets. 


If  any  of  these  positions  sound  exciting  to 
you,  call 

1-800-669-8544 

and  select  the  appropriate  category  for  a 
detailed  job  description  and  the  require¬ 
ments.  To  apply,  send  your  resume  with 
cover  letter  to: 


WordPerfect  is  an  Equal  Employment 
Opportunity  Employer  M/F/H/V 


WordPerfect 

CORPORATION 


1555  No.  Technology  Way 
MSQ1311 

Orem,  UT  84057-2399 


Nationwide 

Opportunities 

Contract/Permanent 

ORACLE  DBA 
ORACLE  FINANCIALS 
C/C++ /WINDOWS 
DB2  Data  Analyst 
AIX/MOTIF 
M&D  MILLENNIUM 
IMS/DB2  PA  s 
SQL/DS  DBA 

Mall/fax  resume  to: 

ABSI 

P.0.  Box  26242.  O.P., 

KS,  66225  6242 
Fax  (913)681-2237 
Call  (800)  775-6177 


OS/2 

Developers 

"Columbus,  Ohio  opportuni¬ 
ties  for  applications  develop¬ 
ment  Programmers  and  Ana¬ 
lysts  with  OS/2  experience. 
Other  skills  of  interest  would 
include:  C  Language,  Small¬ 
talk,  GUI,  Client-Server  envi¬ 
ronments.  Permanent,  not 
contract,  positions.” 

Michael  Thomas  Inc. 
Suite  340 

450  W.  Wilson  Bridge 
Worthington.  OH  43085 
(614)  846-0926 
Fax:  847-5633 


LEADING 

OPPORTUNITIES 


•  Systems  Software  -  Very 
lafge-scale  MVS/ESA,  CICS, 
VfAM.  Advanced  environment. 
Looking  for  creativity,  innova¬ 
tion,  with  large  environment 
management  skills.  Perm. 

•  IMS/DB-DC.  Health  Ins  claims 

•  CICS/VSAM/DB2 

•  AS/400,  SYNON 

•  IEF  case,  design  thru  const. 

•  UNIX.  C.  GUI.  Oracle,  Ingress 

rush  resume  to  Ernie  Snuggs 

Central  Technical  Services 

550-1 5  Wells  Road 
Orange  Park,  FL  32073 
Ph  (904)  264-4251 
FAX  (904)  264-7541 


★  GET  OUT  ★ 
OF  TOWN 


NATIONWIDE 


OPPORTUNITIES 


YOUR  HOME  TOWN  MAY  HAVE 
MANY  JOBS,  BUT  NOT  YOUR 

PUTER-TECH  NETWORK  OF  00 
NATIONAL  COMPUTER  SEARCH 
ACENCIE8  SPECIALIZES  IN  THE 
PLACEMENT  AND  PAID  RELOCA¬ 
TION  OF  COMPUTER  PERSONNEL 
TO  ALLAREASOFTHEUS  A.. 

(216K356-9990 
FAX#(216)-356-9991 
TOLL-FREE  1-800-752-3674 


COMPUTER 


TTTflT 


NETWORK 


21010  Center  Ridge  ltd. 
Itocky  River,  Ohio  441 16 


PORTLAND,  OREGON 

Moving  to  the  Northwest?  Looking  for  a  progressive  Data 
Processing  employer  offering  a  secure  future,  career  growth 
opportunities,  and  excellent  pay?  Pacific  Data  Group  is 
a  very  successful,  visionary  D.P.  consulting  services  com¬ 
pany.  We  have  five  consecutive  years  of  double-digit 
growth,  strong  ethics,  market  leadership,  satisfied  employ¬ 
ees,  and  top  compensation.  Current  Job  Openings:  Hourly 
W-2  Consultants  and  Salaried  Data  Processing 
Professionals  (all  levels:  Sr.  S/A,  S/A,  Sr.  P/A, 
P/A,  Software  Developer,  Software  Engineer). 


Mainframe:  DB2,  CSP,  CICS,  IMS  DB  OR  DC 

IDMS,  ADSO,  Case  (IEF,  ADW,  IEW) 

Cllent/Server:  Oracle,  Sybase,  Unix,  C,  C++ 
Powerbuilder,  AS400/Synon, 
Daisys,  Pacbase,  Enfin3 

Applications:  Banking,  Insurance,  Retail 

Government,  Telecom,  Financials, 
Utilities,  Manufacturing,  SHAW 


Mall,  Phone,  or  fax:  Pacific  Data  Group,  10300 
S.W.  Greenburg  Road,  Suite  230,  Portland,  Oregon 
97223.  Fax  #:  (503)  293-3898./Phone  (503)  293- 
2499. 


INVITATION  FOR  BIDS 

The  United  Nations  Industrial  Development  Organization  (UNIDO), 
with  headquarters  in  Vienna,  Austria,  is  reviewing  the  scope  of  ser¬ 
vices  and  contracts  related  to  hardware  maintenance  and  facilities 
management  of  its  leased  IBM  3090  250J. 

UNIDO  is  therefore  seeking  companies  with  actual  experience  in 
the  provision  of  outsourcing  services,  which  either  directly  or 
through  sub-contracting  could  offer  full  integration  services  in  the 
areas  of  facilities  management,  system  software  maintenance, 
hardware  maintenance  and  applications  development  support. 

The  contract  would  commence  in  January  1994,  for  a  period  of  two 
years,  extension  being  possible. 

Companies  interested  in  receiving  relevant  bid  documentation 
should  send  a  letter  of  interest  to  be  received  at  UNIDO  not  later 
than  18  June  1993,  stating  company  background,  year  establish¬ 
ed,  staffing  and  turnover,  experience  in  handling  similar  contracts 
with  name(s)  of  client(s)  and  briefly  describing  the  nature  of  ser¬ 
vices  provided,  as  well  as  curricula  vitae  of  key  staff. 

All  correspondence  and/or  enquiries  should  be  addressed,  in  En¬ 
glish,  to: 

Chief,  Contracts  Section/GSD/DA 
UNIDO 

P.O.  Box  300,  A-1400  Vienna,  Austria 
Tel:  43-1-211  31/4833,  Fax:  43-1-230  82  72 


Sr.  Systems  Analyst/Software  En¬ 
gineer  responsible  for  assisting  in 
conversion  support  of  hardware 
and  software  systems  from  an 
FX/MM  system  to  an  FEX/ILD 
system  in  a  UNISYS  operating  en¬ 
vironment.  Duties  include:  evalu¬ 
ating  existing  systems  and  deter¬ 
mining  need  for  modification  or  im¬ 
plementation  of  new  hardware  or 
software  systems  to  meet  optimal 
output  goals;  applying  knowledge 
of  ATS  (Automated  transfer  Sup¬ 
port)  system  to  assist  in  support 
and  conversion  of  on-line  FEX  and 
ILD  (Foreign  Exchange  and  In¬ 
ternational  Loans  and  Deposits) 
systems  applications  utilizing 
COMS  software  developed  in  a 
UNISYS  operating  environment; 
providing  expertise  in  systems  de¬ 
velopment  to  analyze  user  re¬ 
quirements  and  define  appropriate 
changes  in  applications  to  meet 
user  needs;  developing  code  in 
COBOL  and  DMSII  to  enhance  or 
modify  existing  applications;  moni¬ 
toring  applications  implementa¬ 
tion,  providing  enhancements  to 
applications  pursuant  to  user 
specifications,  and  supporting  us¬ 
ers  in  correcting  system  errors; 
and  serving  as  a  technical  liaison 
to  other  systems  personnel  to  en¬ 
sure  conversion  goals  are  met  in  a 
timely  and  efficient  manner.  Appli¬ 
cants  must  possess  M  B  A.  de¬ 
gree  plus  3  years  of  experience  in 
|Ob  ottered  or  3  years  as  Systems 
Analyst  and/or  Consultant  or  any 
combination  thereof.  Applicants 
must  possess  Bachelor's  degree 
in  Electrical  Engineering  or  Com- 
iuter  Science.  Experience  must 
ave  included  developing  and 
coding  on-line  and  off-line  compo¬ 
nents  of  an  ATS  (Automated 
Transfer  Support)  system  module, 
as  well  as  conducting  testing,  im¬ 
plementation  and  post-implemen¬ 
tation  support  of  such  compo¬ 
nents  for  the  banking  industry. 
Experience  should  have  included 
the  support  and  development  of 
UNISYS  applications  utilizing  CO- 
BOL  and  DMSII  programming  lan¬ 
guages.  as  well  as  conversion  of  a 
foreign  exchange  and  in¬ 
ternational  loan  and  deposit  sys¬ 
tem  to  COMS  for  on-line  transac¬ 
tions.  40  hrs.  M/F,  9  a.m.  to  5 
p.m..  $45, 000/annum.  Must  have 
proof  of  legal  authority  to  work 
permanently  in  the  US.  SEND 
TWO  COPIES  OF  RESUME  to  Illi¬ 
nois  Department  of  Employment 
Security,  401  S.  State  St.,  Three 
South,  Chicago,  Illinois  60605, 
Attn:  S.  Lindsey.  Reference  #V- 
IL-10082-L.  NO  CALLS.  AN  EM¬ 
PLOYER  PAID  AD 


PI 

hi 


ASSIGNMENTS  NATIONWIDE  USING: 

★  PEOPLESOFT  ★  MARCAM 

★  JDE  ★  MAPICS  ★ SYNON 

★  TESSERACT  ★  BPCS  *CA 

★  ORACLE  ★  SYBASE  ★  SAP 

EXCEL  PARTNERS  INC. 

461  CtlMtnut  Rldg.  Rd.  Suit.  308 
Wooddlff  L.k.,  N.J.  07675 
(201)  391-6270  FAX  391-6740 


Consulting  firm 

seeks  employees  and 
independent  consult¬ 
ants  experienced  w / 
DBS  M-Series  (McCor¬ 
mack  &  Dodge)  Millen¬ 
nium  products.  Excel¬ 
lent  salary/benefits. 
Send  resume  to: 

Radcor  Technology  Inc. 
4340  E-W  Hwy. 

Suite  206 

Bethesda,  MD  20814 
FAX#  301-951-8511 


Farrell  and 
Associates 

Consulting  & 
Permanent 

IEF 

HOGAN 

C,  C-l — h 

Phone:  813-530-0207 
Fax:  813-535-1401 

PO  Box  1678 
Largo,  FL  34649 


Software  Engineer.  40hrs/wk, 
8:30am-5:30pm,  $33, 000/year. 

Development  of  device-drivers 
and  graphics  libraries  for  GXTRA 
series  graphics  accelerators. 
Port/integrate  X-Windows  for  ac¬ 
celerator  cards.  Port  device  driv¬ 
ers  to  Solaris  2.0.  Quality  testing 
and  diagnostics.  Object-oriented 
programming.  Customer  support. 
Tools:  C/UNIX;  C+  +  ;  Advanced 
Computer  Graphics  (2D  &  3D); 
X-Windows;  SUN  workstation; 
RS/6000;  networked  environ¬ 
ment.  M  S.  in  Computer  Science 
as  well  as  six  months  experience 
as  a  Software  Engineer  or  Gradu¬ 
ate  Assistant  required.  Previous 
experience  must  include:  UNIX 
technical  support;  UNIX  and  PC 
networking;  SUN  workstation; 
RS/6000;  X-Windows;  C  Gradu¬ 
ate  education  must  include  one 
course  each  on  Advanced  Oper¬ 
ating  Systems  (device  drivers) 
and  Advanced  Computer  Graph¬ 
ics  (2  and  3D  graphics),  as  well  as 
one  project  involving  device  driv¬ 
ers.  Send  resume  to:  Job  Service 
of  Florida,  3421  Lawton  Road, 
Orlando,  FL  32803-2999,  Re:  Job 
Order  #FL-0830396. 


SENIOR  ENGINEER 
SOFTWARE  SYSTEMS 
Data  Base  Group 

Duties:  Conceptualize,  design, 
code,  test,  and  integrate  data 
base  software  in  support  of  a 
real-time  distributed  data  base. 
Data  base  system  incorporates 
object-oriented  and  relational  data 
modelling  using  an  X-windows- 
based  graphical  user  interface. 
Develop  detailed  specifications 
and  integrate  these  into  a  comput¬ 
er-based  energy  management 
system  for  electric  utilities;  de¬ 
velop  solutions  to  problems  of 
high  complexity,  and  make  practi¬ 
cal  application  of  customary  prac¬ 
tices,  procedures,  or  techniques. 
Requires  Bachelor  s  degree  in 
electrical  engineering  or  computer 
science  plus  two  years’  experi¬ 
ence  as  a  software  engineer,  or  a 
Master's  degree  in  electrical  engi¬ 
neering  or  computer  science  with 
no  experience.  Requires  knowl¬ 
edge  of  C  language.  UNIX,  ob¬ 
ject-oriented  data  modelling,  rela¬ 
tional  data  modelling,  distributed 
data  base  concepts,  and  X-wind- 
ows  application  programming. 
Prevailing  working  conditions  of¬ 
fered.  Salary  $40,700  per  year.  40 
hours  per  week.  Qualified  appli¬ 
cants  should  send  their  resumes 
to:  Attn:  Job  Order  #Fl- 
0834048,  Job  Service  of  Florida, 
3421  Lawton  Road,  Orlando,  FL 
32803.  EOE. 


Development  Staff  Member 
(Boca  Raton,  FL):  Conduct  re¬ 
search  and  development  in  logic 
synthesis,  verification  and  test 
pattern  generation  for  low-end 
computer  systems.  This  will  in¬ 
clude  the  design  and  develop¬ 
ment  of  artificial  intelligence 
based  software  and  other  pro¬ 
grams  for  hardware  design  for 
Personal  System/2.  Define  a 
high  level  design  specification 
methodology  which  will  link  with 
strategic  VHDL  1076  design  lan¬ 
guage.  Ph  D.  in  Computer  Engi¬ 
neering  plus  1  year  in  job  or  1 
year  as  a  Pre-/or  Post  Doctoral 
Research  Assistant.  Experience 
must  include  algorithms  re¬ 
search  and  systems  develop¬ 
ment  in  logic  synthesis,  verifica¬ 
tion.  test  pattern  generation,  and 
application  of  artificial  intelli¬ 
gence  and  pattern  recognition 
techniques  to  computer  aided 
VLSI  design.  40hr/wk,  8:00  a.m. 
-  4:30  p.m.;  $56,376/yr.  Appli¬ 
cants  should  submit  resume  to 
the  Job  Service  of  Florida,  2660 
W.  Oakland  Park  Boulevard, 
Fort  Lauderdale,  Florida  33111- 
1347.  Reference  Job  Order 
#FL-0834234. 


PROGRAMMERS 

ANALYSTS 

SOFTWARE  ENGINEERS 


PRO-STAR  is  one  of  the 
West's  premier  providers  of 
consulting  services.  We  have 
immediate  openings  in  the 
Sacramento  &  Reno  areas  for: 

-  Senior  systems  analysts 

-  CICS/COBOL  Programmers 

-  Powerhouse  Programmers 
(VAX  &  HP) 

-  DB2  Database  Administrators 

•  ORACLE  Programmers 

•  LAN  Administration  &  Tech 
Support 

-  C++,  UNIX  Software  Engineers 

Please  mail  or  fax  your  resume 
to:  PRO-STAR,  6929  Sunrise 
Blvd.,  #210,  Attn:  CW1 ,  Citrus 
Heights,  CA  956  iO. 

Fax:  (916)  722-1045 
Phone:  916-969-0176 


86  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Computer  Careers 


-MCI 

riici 

MCI 
»*CI 
MCI 

liici 

MCI 

niici 

MCI 

nici 

MCI 

nici 
liici 
nici 

MCI 

liici 
liici 
nici 
nici 


MCI  SYSTEMS  ENGINEERING 
Technology  &  Opportunity! 

Innovation  begins  with  ideas,  making  the  right  choices, 
and  having  an  independent  mind  set  that  is  able  to  work 
within  a  team  framework.  MCI  has  achieved  success  and 
become  a  $10  billion  company  by  gaining  the  competitive 
edge  that  comes  from  professional  interaction  and  use  of 
advanced  technology. 

We  offer  a  competitive  salary  and  benefits  package,  plus  opportunities  for 
professional  development  and  training  for  participants  in  MCTs  challenging 
career  climate  in  Colorado  Springs,  Colorado  or  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa. 


HIHNI 


- 


COLORADO  SPRINGS,  CO 

Colorado  Springs  is  a  clean,  healthy  environment  for  year  'round  outdoor 
recreation  that’s  just  one  hour  away  from  Denver. 

IBM  SYSTEMS  PROGRAMMERS 
(Response  Code  Dept.  1266/RFCW) 

•  Systems  Programming 

•  Performance  Tuning  &  Capacity  Planning 

•  DASD  Management 

•  Database  Administration 

Experience  is  required  in: 

MVS/ESA,  DFP/ESA,  DFHSM,  DFSMS,  DFDSS,  CICS,  DB2,  IMS,  ADABAS, 
RACF,  Teleview,  VTAM,  Netview,  JES,  Omegamon,  SMP/E,  MICS,  SAS 

IBM/VAX  APPLICATIONS  DEVELOPERS/PROGRAMMERS 
(Response  Code  Dept.  1266/BDMH) 


CEDAR  RAPIDS,  IA 


Cedar  Rapids  features  a  high  quality  of  life  with  active  community 
involvement,  excellent  education  systems  and  diverse  cultural  events. 

APPLICATIONS  PROGRAMMERS/DEVELOPERS 

'■'v  SSsssSSksSS 

s '  s  '  <:•>  ^  s  w  v 

IBM  MAINFRAME 


COBOL,  COBOL  D 

CICS 

VSAM 

Intertest 

DB2 

Structured  Development  Methodology 
Lifecycle  Development  Process 
CASE  Tools 

Functional  Requirements  Analysis 
User  Acceptance  Testing 


IMS 

ADAB  AS/NATURAL 
qaq 

TSO/ISPF 

MVS/ESA 


PCs/MICROS 


IBM  MAINFRAME 

COBOL  •  ADABAS/NATURAL 

CICS  •  WINDOWS  /  OS/2 

DB2  •  PRESENTATION  MANAGER 

VASM  •  VTAM 

C,  C++  •  TOKEN  RING 


•  VAX/VMS 

•  C,  C++ 

•  POWERHOUSE 

•  UNIX,  ULTRIX 


VAX 

DECNET  •  WINDOWS 
ETHERNET  •  SNA 
DECTOOLS  •  VTAM 

•  LAN/WAN 


X.25/X.400 

FOXPRO 

SYBASE 

LU6.2 

TESTERS 


X.25/X.400 

TESTERS 

OSI 

STRATUS 


C  C++ 

OS2,  UNIX,  AK.  MS-DOS 
PRESENTATION  MANAGER 
DATABASE  MANAGER 
WINDOWS  DEVELOPMENT 
SYBASE 


VAX/VMS 

C 

DECNET 


VAX 


LU6.2 
FOXPRO 
TOKEN  RING 
ETHERNET 
LAN/WAN 


POWERHOUSE 
DECTOOLS 
VAX  CLUSTER 


Send  your  resume  to:  MCI  Telecommunications  Corporation,  2424 
Garden  of  the  Gods  Road,  Colorado  Springs,  CO  80919  or  FAX 
to  (719)  535-1990.  Include  Response  Code. 


Send  your  resume  to:  MCI  Telecommunications  Corporation, 
500  Second  Avenue  SE,  Cedar  Rapids, 

IA  52401  or  FAX  to  (319)  399-4210. 


We  are  an  equal  opportunity  employer. 


MCI 


IMMEDIATE  OPENINGS 

Live,  Play,  Work 
in  Florida 

Consultants  &  Permanent 
Minimum  3  Years  Experience: 

•  IMS  DB/DC  •  CICS 

•  Powersoft  •  Natural 

•  IEF  •  DB2 

•  PACBASE  •  Oracle 

•  Sybase  •  SAS 

•  AS/400  •  HP  3000 

•  Object  Oriented  GUI 

Application  Experience  in: 

•  Health  Care 

•  Manufacturing 

•  Direct  Marketing/ 

Catalog  Mail  Order 

Call.  FAX.  or  Mail  your  Resume 
To  Human  Resources  Depanmem 


aUALTTECH^H^k 
Systems,  Inc.^^B 


9250  Baymeadows  Road.  Suite  1 20 
Jacksonville,  FL  32256 
800  831 -TECH 
FAX:  (904)  737-9806 


IBM  Marketing  Reps,  System  Engineers  and 
Managers  for  Saudi  Arabia  and  the  Gulf 
IBM  Environment 

ATTRACTIVE  TAX  FREE  SALARIES  AND  BENEFITS 

A  leading  Company  has  the  following  immediate  openings: 
Marketing  Reps:  Min.  7  yrs  exp.  in  IBM  Mainframes  &  large 
A/C  (bankjng/Govemment).  Sho&ld  have  sales  track  record. 
System  Engineers:  Min.  7  yrs  exp.  of  IBM  product  support  iru 

-  Mainframes,  MVS/XA,  ESA 

-  DataBase,  DB2,  CICS  &  apps  dev.  AD/cyde  is  a  plus 

-  Networking,  VTAM,  NCP  -  RS/6K,  AIX  and  UNIX 
Process  Industry  Consultants:  Min.  8  yrs  exp.  in  petroleum 
industry,  refineries,  RTPMS.  Project  mgmt  skills  are  required. 
MVS/CICS  system  programmers:  Min.  5  yrs  exp.  in  MVS 
installation,  customization,  VTAM  &  SNA  implementation. 
Application  development  Consultants:  Min.  5  yrs  exp.  in 
SDLC,  DB2,  CICS,  CSP  and  CASE  tools.  AD/cycle  is  a  plus. 

For  consideration,  please  send  your  resume  in  confidence  to: 
MASHA1  Business  Corp. 

52  Via  Zaragoza,  San  Clemente,  CA.  92672 
FAX  (714)366-2396 


HOGAN  | 


50+  Openings,  Nationwide 
Immediate  Hire!! 
Permanent  and  Contract 


•  Vice  President;  IBA:  IDS/ILP. 

Outstanding  upward  mobility,  Superbank  - 

Only  the  best  need  apply . 1 50K 

•  Assistant  Vice  President:  IDS,  CIS,  HP, 

Multiple  positions . TO  90K 

•  Project  Managers:  IDS,  CIS,  PAS,  RPM. 

Several  different  levels . TO  90K 

•  Programmer(s):  IDS,  CIS,  ILP,  RPM,  IRS, 

DISC,  VECTOR  5,  CAMS.  (3-15+  yrs.  exp.)  TO  70K 

•  Analyst(s):  IDS,  CIS,  ILP,  RPM,  IRS,  DISC, 

VECTOR  5,  CAMS.  (3-15+  yrs.  exp.) . TO  75K 

•  Business/Functional  Analyst(s):  IDS,  CIS, 

ILP.  Develop,  implement  &  liaison  TO  70K 


Florida 

DON’T  DREAM  THE  LIFE, 
LIVE  THE  DREAM!!! 

Florida,  with  gentle  winds  bending  the 
palms  and  an  average  temperature  of 
72°.  is  one  of  the  finest  places  to  live  and 
work. 


AMD  Consulting  Services  is  experiencing 
phenomenal  growth  Our  customers. 
Florida's  premier  information  processing  centers, 
have  immediate  needs  for  professionals  with  ex¬ 
perience  in  any  of  the  following: 

•  COBOL  PLI.  ALC,  RPG3.  "C  ",  CICS 

•  FOCUS.  ORACLE  INFORMIX 

•  DB2/SQL.  IDMS.  M204.  IMS 

•  TANDEM  COBOL,  TAL,  PATHWAY 

•  DEC/VAX,  UNIX.  AIX.  OS2.  PICK 

•  PAC  BASE.  MCCORAAACK  A  DODGE 


MUST  HAVE  HOGAN  EXPERIENCE! 


It's  your  move,  make  it  the  RIGHT  ONE. 


Tele/Data 

PH:  (716)  883-0777,  FAX;  (716)  883-0933 


Am 


J-  JL,*e  co*sutnNG*Pv»cts 


120  Hyde  Park  Place  Tampa,  Florida  33606 

Suite  2 10C  (813)229  9208 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  87 


Computer  Careers 


Ingres  Corporaiion,  member  of  The  ASK  Group,  Inc.,  is  the  industry's  innovative  technology  leader  in  open 
systems  information  management.  Join  us  as  we  lead  the  world  into  a  true  open  systems  environment.  Currently, 
we  have  opportunities  available  in  New  York,  Boston,  Atlanta,  Chicago,  Denver,  Dallas,  and  Alameda 

for  the  following: 


Sr.  Sates  Representatives 


Working  out  of  an  area  sales  office,  you  will  identify,  develop  and  close  new  account  prospects,  in  the  areas  of 
financial  services,  manufacturing,  general  business,  telecommunication  and/or  installed  base  customers,  for 
Ingres'  industry  leading  products  and  services.  Responsibilities  will  include  direct  sales,  conducting  sales 
presentations/demonstrations,  attending  trade  shows  and  user  group  meetings,  generating  sales  forecasts  and 
related  reports.  Qualified  candidates  will  be  motivated  and  resourceful  sales  professionals  with  a  strong 
knowledge  of  the  industry,  as  well  as  the  ability  to  tailor  sales  packages  to  customer  specification .  A  related  college 
degree  and  5+  years’  sales  experience  in  a  complex  sales  cycle  complemented  with  3+  years'  demonstrated 
success  selling  software  is  required.  Exceptional  written  and  verbal  communication  skills  are  essential. 

Sr.  Technical  Support  Representative/ 
Technical  Support  Representatives 

Partner  with  the  area  sales  organization  to  provide  presales  technical  support  to  prospective  clients.  Primary 
responsibilities  will  include  development  and  execution  of  sales  strategies,  delivering  customized  technical 
presentations,  defining  technical  requirements/prototype  specifications,  writing  SQL,  3GL,  &  4GL  code  for 
benchmark  and  performance  tests,  and  technical  liaison  activities.  A  BSCS/IS  degree  or  equivalent,  previous 
technical  sales  experience  and  a  strong  working  knowledge  of  database  concepts,  applications,  and  code  (SQL, 
3GL,  &  4GL)  are  a  must.  Experience  with  a  database  and/or  relational  database  management  system  are  desirable. 
Strong  written/verbal  communication  skills  are  necessary. 

Senior  level  position  requires  3+  years'  applications  development  experience  using  a  variety  of  major 
programming  languages.  The  ability  to  act  as  a  technical  resource  for  the  department  is  required.  Experience  with 
at  least  one  major  operating  systems  environment  is  preferred. 

Technical  Support  Representatives  must  possess  a  minimum  of  one  to  three  years'  applications  development 
experience  using  a  major  programming  language. 


We  also  have  exceptional  career  opportunities  available  for 
SOFTWARE  ENGINEERS  and  PRODUCT  MANAGERS  to  join  our 
premiere  development  team  in  Alameda,  California.  Expertise 
in  one  or  more  of  tbe  following  are  required. 

•  Distributed  Transaction  Processing 

•  Object  Management 

•  Connectivity  of  Heterogenous  Systems 

•  Higb  Performance/Higb  availability  database 

•  GUI  applications  development  tools 


At  Ingres,  our  growth  is  your  opportunity.  Ingres  backs  exciting  careers  with  an  outstanding  compensation  and 
benefits  package  in  addition  to  career  advancement  opportunity.  For  consideration,  mail  or  FAX  your  resume, 
indicating  position  and  metropolitan  market  of  interest  to:  Ingres  Corporation,  1080  Marina  Village  Parkway, 
Alameda,  CA  94501.  Attn:  TP-CMW531.  FAX:  (510)748-3442  OR  (510)748-2633-  EOE  M/F/D/V. 


la  Ingres 


SOFTWARE  ENGINEERS  and  IT  PROFESSIONALS 

JOIN  THE  BEST  IN  SEATTLE! 

There  are  many  consulting  companies,  but  only  one  is  BEST!  If  you 
truly  want  to  make  a  professional  difference  and  be  more  than  an  em¬ 
ployee,  then  take  advantage  of  this  unique  opportunity.  Join  the  elite 
at  BEST  Consulting,  a  Seattle  firm  committed  to  being  the  premier 
provider  of  DP  solutions  and  careers.  Our  firm  continues  to  experi¬ 
ence  rapid  growth!  We  have  hired  over  50  employees  in  Seattle  this 
year  and  continue  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  more  assignments  than  we 
have  qualified  Software  Engineers  and  IT  Professionals  to  fill.  We 
have  immediate  openings  for  expenenced  Software  Engineers  and  IT 
Professionals  to  work  with  leading  edge  development. 

Immediate  openings  for  PI  A’ s,  Analysts  or  DBA’s 
with  the  following  skills: 

•  Sybase,  SQL  Server,  Oracle,  Ingres.  Gupta  •  NeXT 

•  Access  *0.0+  + 

•  UNIX  •  WINDOWS  SDK  or  X-WINDOWS 

•  VisualBasic  •  Powerbuilder  •  Smalltalk 
Additional  Skills  needed  include: 

•  COBOL  CICS  •  AS400  with  COBOL  or  RPG400 

•  ROSC-OE  •  MICROFOCUS  COBOL 

•  GIS  •  IMS  DB/DC 

Salaried  opportunities  with  benefits  or  hourly  positions  and  the 
Great  Northwest  lifestyle  ottered.  If  you  do  not  call  or  send  a  re¬ 
sume.  you  may  miss  the  career  opportunity  of  a  lifetime. 

BEST  Consulting 

1940116th  Avenue  N.E  •  Bellevue,  WA  98004 

(206)  637-0130  (206)  637-9550  FAX 


Software 
Test  Supervisor 

Use  your  knowledge  and  experience  in  testing  safety/ 
mission  critical  software  to  provide  technical  leadership  to 
a  major  department  ($85  million  in  revenue)  of  a  CA- 
based,  medical  device  manufacturer.  This  department’s  life 
sustaining  products  lead  the  world  market  and  you  can 
help  assure  that  they  remain  safe  and  effective. 

Responsibilities  include  supervision  of  all  test  activities 
from  planning  to  execution,  specification  of  methodologies 
and  tools,  development  and  implementation  of  policies  and 
procedures,  and  maintenance  of  technical  expertise  in  soft¬ 
ware  test. 

This  position  requires  a  BSEE/CS  or  equivalent  and  7+ 
years  of  hands  on  experience  testing  critical  software  with 
at  least  2  years  as  a  Supervisor  or  project  leader.  A 
thorough  knowledge  of  real-time  embedded  systems  and 
testing  is  essential. 

Fax  resume  to  Software  Quality  Engineering,  612-591- 
1534  or  send  to  2738  Winnetka  Ave.,  N.,  New  Hope,  MN 
55427.  Deadline  for  receipt  is  June  2 1  st. 


INFORMATION  SYSTEMS 
PROFESSIONALS 

Entergy  Services,  Inc.,  the  technical  subsidiary  for  Entergy  Corporation,  a  multi-billion  dollar 
energy  company,  has  positions  open  in  New  Orleans,  LA  for  Information  Systems 
Professionals. 

COMPUTER  APPLICATIONS  DEVELOPER 

Will  work  with  client/server  technology  across  multiple  computer  platforms  including: 
*  IBM  mainframes  *  RISC  based  LINIX  systems  *  NOVELL  LANs  *  PCs  running  Windows,  BS 
degree  in  related  field  required.  Experience  in  *  C  *  RDBMS  *  OOM  desired. 

DATA  ADMINISTRATION 

Will  participate  in  the  establishment  of  corporate  data  administration  function  and 
application  process/reuse  programs.  Technical  degree  and  4+  years  related  experience. 

DATA  BASE  ADMINISTRATION 

Will  support  three  production  IMS  DB/DC/FastPath,  one  CICS/DB2,  one  SYBASE,  and  one 
ORACLE  production  environments.  Requires  a  technical  degree  and  2  years  of  experience 
in  data  base  administration. 

Entergy's  current  environment  consists  of  two  IBM  3090's  supporting  production  applica¬ 
tions  in  IMS  DB/DC  and  CICS/DB2.  Numerous  UNIX  based  systems  including  an  NCR  3550 
and  SUN  690s  support  the  SYBASE  and  ORACLE  applications.  Future  applications  will  be 
developed  in  a  distributed  architecture. 

We  offer  excellent  compensation  and  benefits  program.  If  you're  interested  in  joining  the 
Entergy  team,  call  1-800-231-4481  (outside  LA)  or  (504)  569-4791,  or  send  your  resume 
and  salary  requirements  to:  John  R.  Andresen,  Entergy  Services,  Inc.,  P.O.  Box  61000, 
New  Orleans,  LA  70161  or  FAX  your  resume  to:  (504)  569-4428.  An  Equal  Opportunity 
Employer,  M/F/D/V. 


ENTERGY 


SMALLTALK  PROFESSIONALS 


If  you  are  an  Experienced  Smalltalk  Developer 
This  is  Your  Opportunity  to  Join  the 
MOST  EXCITING  Team  of  Object  Technology 
Professionals  in  the  Country! 

Roth  Well  International,  RWI 
has  Challenging  Projects  Across  the  US 

PO  Box  270566,  Houston,  TX  77277-0566 

(800)  256-0541  (713)  660-8080 

FAX:  (713)661-1156 


COMPUTER  CONSULTANTS 

i  Associates,  Inc.,  is  a  computer  consultant  firm.  The  following  are  current  open 
positions  in  our  area.  Call  or  send  your  resume  today. 


Ask  for  Susan 

•  P/A:  AS400,  RPG400 

•  P/A:  AS400,  BPCS 

•  P/ACICS,  COBOL, 
Assembler,  CA-Earl, 
Gener/OL  a  plus 

•  P/A  CIMCase 

•  P/A  Prime/Pick/INFO 

•  P/A:  Easel 

•  P/AHP9000,  UNIX 


Ask  for  Robbi 

•  IEF,  Mfg  applic. 

•  VAX  Sys  Admin. 
VMS,  DCL 

•  P/A  AS400/RPG400 

•  HP9000  Sys  Admin 
UX,  CAD/CAM  & 
Mfg  applic  a  plus 


Ask  for  Lisa 

•  P/A:  w/ASI,  long-term 

•  P/A:  w/med.  claim  in 
IBM  mainframe, 
Tesseract  is  a  plus 

•  P/A:  Cyborg  mainte¬ 
nance 


P.  O.  Box  1724,  St. Louis,  MO  63043 
(314)  434-1976  •  FAX  434-0952 


NACCB  Member 


"Associates,  Inc 


Systems  Analyst,  40  hrs/wk.,  9am 
-  5pm,  $43, 000/year.  Design  and 
implement  integrated  &  distrib¬ 
uted  computer  solutions  for  auto¬ 
mation  in  warehousing  and  trans¬ 
portation  industries,  using  narrow- 
band  and  spread  spectrum  R.F. 
terminals  and  barcode  scanners. 
Design  systems  to  integrate  such 
solutions  into  existing  LANs 
and/or  WANs.  Tools:  C;  UNIX;  Or¬ 
acle;  X-Windows.  M.S.  in  Com¬ 
puter  Science  as  well  as  three 
months  expenence  as  a  Systems 
Analyst  or  Computer  Consultant 
required.  Prior  experience  must 
include:  commercial  applications 
using  barcode  scanners  and  R.F. 
terminals;  writing  automated  ship¬ 
ping  software.  Graduate  course- 
work  must  include:  Concurrent 
computer  systems  and  software; 
Distributed  Software  Engineering; 
Multi-user  communications  sys¬ 
tems.  Must  have  proof  of  legal  au¬ 
thority  to  work  permanently  in  the 
U  S.  Send  two  copies  of  resume 
to:  ILLINOIS  DEPARTMENT  OF 
EMPLOYMENT  SECURITY,  401 
South  State  Street  -  3  South,  Chi¬ 
cago,  IL  60605,  Attention:  Maxine 
Counts,  Reference  AV-IL- 
10499-C.  NO  CALLS.  An  Em¬ 
ployer  Paid  Ad. 


CONSULTANTS  q 
SHOULD  CONSULT  | 

r  mi 

Great  C 
Assignme 
Time  Op 

Please  send/t 

MIMI  SIM 

90  West  Sir 
NY( 

(212)  406-17C 

IMIy 

onsulting 
nts  and  Full 
portunities 

ax  resume  &  call: 

ON  ASSOC. 

set,  Suite  1105, 
10006 

5  FAX:  406-1768 

Hiring 

Managers 

Recruit  qualified  com¬ 
puter  and  communica¬ 
tions  professionals  with 
the  IDG  Communications 
Computer  Careers  Net¬ 
work  of  five  leading  com¬ 
puter  newspapers.  For 
more  details.  Call  Lisa 
McGrath  at: 

(800)  343-6474 

(in  MA,  508/879-07001 


Computerworld 

recruitment 

advertising 

works! 

That’s  because  more  computer  profes¬ 
sionals  read  more  recruitment  ads  in 
Computerworld  than  in  any  other  news¬ 
paper. 

For  more  information  or  to  place  your  ad, 
call  Lisa  McGrath  at  800-343-6474  (in 
MA,  508-879-0700). 

Weekly.  Regional.  National. 

And  it  works. 

An  IDG  Communications  Publication 


88  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


ANOTHER 
REASON  WHY 
COMPUTERWORLD 
RECRUITMENT 
ADVERTISING 
WORKS ... 


Computerworld  gives  you  large 
numbers  of  professionals  who  work 
in  your  industry. 

When  you’re  recruiting  computer 
professionals,  it’s  often  important  to 
find  ones  with  experience  working 
on  systems  specific  to  your  industry. 
From  manufacturing  to  banking, 
healthcare  to  insurance,  Computer- 
world’s  audience  of  629,204  is  made 
up  of  the  right  people  in  every  ma¬ 
jor  industry. 


Experienced  Professionals  in 
Industry  Computerworld’s  Audience  of 
629,204  (multiple  responses  given) 


Computer  Vendor  and  Consulting  236,79 1 

Computer  Manufacturer  92,524 

large-scale  computers  58,896 

medium-scale  computers  43,832 

small-scale  computers  39,2 1 0 

personal  computers  58,385 

technical  workstations  27,361 

Software  Vendor  2 1 8,027 

for  large-scale  systems  90,605 

for  medium-scale  systems  68,763 

tor  small-scale  systems  58,422 

for  personal  computers  97,695 

for  technical  workstations  33,217 

Non-CPU  Computer 

Products  Manufacturer  42,051 

VAR/Dealer/Retailer  27,772 

DP  Service  Bureau/ 

Contract  DP  Services  7 1 ,293 

Consulting/Planning  76,848 

Manufacturer  (not  computers)  202,131 

Insurance  91,117 

Healthcare  48,866 

Banking/Financial  Services  1 16,696 

Government  Federal/State/Local  1 14,677 

Business  Service  (except  DP)  63,793 

Communications  Systems  55,744 

Public  Utilities  24,93 1 

Transportation  51,533 

Wholesale/Retail  Trade  107,725 

Education  92,761 


SOURCE:  Skill  Survey  of  Computenforid's  Audience,  August  1992. 

To  place  your  ad  regionally  or  na¬ 
tionally,  call  John  Corrigan,  Vice 
President/Classified  Advertising, 

at  800/343-6474  (in  MA, 
508/879-0700). 

COMPUTERWORLD 

Where  the  qualified  candidates  look.  Every  week. 


Computer  Careers 

East 


Join  Our  Growing  Teams  In 
Dallas,  Raleigh,  St.  Louis 


I  ADABAS/NATURAL  ■  FoxPro 

I  VAX/VMS/D  EC seVCMS/MMS  ■  Paradox 

I  ORACLE/SQLVPowerbuilder  ■  IDMS 

I  CLIPPER/PASCAL/VAX  ■  DB2 

1 4TH  Dimension/Oracle  ■  IMS 

I  C/C++/OS2/DOS/Windows  ■  dBase 

I  UNIX/C/C++ 


Please  send  resumes  to:  Belcan  Information  Services, 
Dept.  C,  P.O.  Box  59870, 

Dallas,  TX  75229-1870; 

800-288-8418;  fax  (214) 

401-3388.  Equal  Opportunity 
Employer. 


Belcan 


DB2  DATABASE  ADMINISTRATOR 

Excellent  opportunity  with  Charlotte.  NC  based  retailing 
company  for  an  experienced  DB2  DBA  for  applications 
in  MVS  and  CICS.  Responsibilities  include  data 
modeling,  database  design,  monitoring,  tuning  and 
production  support.  Experience  in  any  of  the  following 
is  desirable:  SQL,  DB2  utilities.  Platinum  Products.  DB2 
PM,  Scalpel,  data  dictionary,  QMF,  SAS,  MVS  JCL  attach 
and  checkpoint  products,  ISPF.  REXX,  Crystal.  CASE 
products  and  OS/2.  If  you  are  looking  to  apply  your 
DBA  skills  to  challenging  assignments  in  a  state-of-the- 
art  MIS  environment,  please  send  your  resume  to: 

PA  Ryan 

Belk  Stores  Services,  Inc. 

2801  W.  Tyvola  Road,  Charlotte,  NC  28217 


DP  STAFFING  SINCE  1969 

PERMANENT  FL  OPPTY'S 


Team  Leadef  IEF . $58K 

Tandem  Cobol  Tal  Sql  C....S45K 
P/A  MVS  CICS  GLVAR/AP  ,$45K 

S/EC  Intel 21617 B.S . $43K 

S/E4GLHMIGUI  B.S . $45K 

P/A  S/A  IEF  DB2 . $46K 

S/E  Framme  Unix  C . $50K 

DA  Sybase/Orade . $45K 

P/A's  Powerbuilder . $40K 

P/As  AS  400  Cobol/RPG  ...$45K 

P/A's  CICS/IMS/DB2 . $40K 

S/E  Ada  Oracle  2167 . $45K 

Data  Modeler  Sybase . $45K 


AVAILABILITY,  INC. 
Dept.  C.P.O.  Box  25434 
Tampa,  Florida  33622 
813/286-8800 
FAX:  813/286-0574 


Hiring 

Managers 

Recruit  qualified  com¬ 
puter  and  communica¬ 
tions  professionals  with 
the  IDG  Communications 
Computer  Careers  Net¬ 
work  of  five  leading  com¬ 
puter  newspapers.  For 
more  details.  Call  Lisa 
McGrath  at: 

(800)  343-6474 

(in  MA,  508/879-0700) 


Wireless 

Telecommunications 

Opportunities 


Our  client  is  a  pioneer  and  leader  in 
Wireless  Communications.  We  have 
been  asked  to  recruit  top  talent  lor  op 
portunities  currently  available  in  the 
North,  Southeast,  Midwest  &  Northern 
California  areas. 

•  SOFTWARE  ENGINEERS 
(OEC/VAX/VMS/EORTRAN) 

•  SOFTWARE  ENGINEERS 

(UNIX.  C,  C+  +) 

CALL  or  WRITE  TODAY! 

(919)544  9476 


E.J.  Dort  &  Associate. 

P.O.  Box  12546 

_ RTP,  NC  27709-2545 _ 


ALGORITHM  SPECIALIST:  Re¬ 
quires  PhD  or  equivalent  in  Com¬ 
puter  Science  with  thesis  in  artifi¬ 
cial  intelligence  applications; 
graduate-level  study  of  algorithm 
design;  and  at  least  two  years  of 
research  or  industry  experience 
in  LISP  programming,  implement¬ 
ing  complex  algorithms,  and  pro¬ 
gramming  artificial  intelligence  ap¬ 
plications  in  C. 

To  design  and  code  algorithms 
and  implement  systems  as  part  of 
a  research  project  in  conceptual 
text  processing.  Salary: 
$68,988/year.  Full-time.  Job/In¬ 
terview  site:  Chelmsford.  MA. 
Send  two  copies  of  resume  to: 
Case  #30562,  P.O.  Box  #8968, 
Boston.  MA,  02114.  Upon  hire 
must  show  legal  right  to  work  in 
the  U  S.  EOE. 


RECRUIT 
THE  BEST! 

Place  your  ad  in  regional 
or  national  editions  of 
Computerworld' s  Computer 
Careers  section.  For  more 
information  call  Lisa 
McGrath. 

800-343-6474 

(in  MA,  508-879-0700) 


►  -At*  «.  . 

■  UF  *"*  I  1"*^  H  1  it"*  fL**  11^1  C 

,  •*  1 1  .  I  <«»  r4« .  *  r  w  r>  1 1  -  ,  x  — r 

•ws*^^**  ’sds*  -,r  "  ’ 


CONSULTING 

▲  CICS,  Cobol,  Mutual  Funds** 

▲  SYBASE  DBAs,  Data  Modellers** 

▲  CASE,  Bachman,  IPSYS 

▲  C,  C++,  UNIX,  SYBASE,  SQL 

▲  C,  C++,  MS-Windows,  SDK,  DDE 

▲  CICS,  DB2,  QMF,  Telon 

▲  Pyramid,  ORACLE,  UNIX,  Tuxedo 


SeEK  Consulting  is  a  leading  professional 
services  firm  that  provides  highly  skilled  MIS 
and  software  development  professionals  on 
a  contract  basis. Contact  us  immediately  to 
learn  about  current  contract  opportunities. 


▲  C++,  SYBASE,  SQL,  SQR 

▲  IBM  DOS/VSE,  COBOL,  JCL,  VSAM 

▲  Visual  Basic,  Powerbuilder 

▲  UNIX  SYS  ADMIN  (HP  &  Sun) 

▲  Clipper,  Foxpro,  Dbase  III 

▲  MVS  COBOL  TL/1,  CICS,  VSAM 

**  18-24  mos.  contracts  available 


401  Edgewater  PI.  #430 
Wakefield,  MA  01880 


#800-274-1174 
FAX:  617-246-8246 
Internet:  Seek@worid.std.com 


In  Mass:  617-246-8234 


“• - 


Southeast 


Computer  Consulting  Group,  has 
immediate  openings  on  its  south¬ 
east  consulting  staff  for  talented 
Programmer/Analysts.  We  re  es¬ 
pecially  seeking: 

•  IMS  or  CICS  or  DB-2 
•APS 

•  Natural  Adabas 

•  Unisys  IIOO 

•  Wang  Pace 

•  Clarion 

•  Progress 

•  Powerbuilder 

•  X-Windows  Motif 

Computer 

Consulting 

Group 


Contract  Professional  Services 

4109  Wake  Forest  Rd. 

Suite  307 
Raleigh.  NC  27609 

1-800-222-1273 
FAX  (803)738-9123 

Member  NACCB 


Why  WTW? 


Because  You're  The  Best. 

We're  WTW,  Information 
Technology  Consultants 
Exceptional  opportunities 
exist  in  the  southeast  for 
bright  application  developers. 
If  you  are  a  senior  program¬ 
mer  analyst  and  know... 

ORACLE 

Call  or  send  resume  now 
P.O.  Box  72137 
Atlanta,  GA 
30007-2137 
Tom  Hesson 

1-800-833-2892 


WTW 


INFORMATION 

TECHNOLOGY 

CONSULTING 


An  Equal  Opportunity  Employer 


PROJECT  MANAGERS 
Payroll /Personnel 
or  Financial 

Permanent  position  available  for 
professionals  with  strong  project 
management,  business  analysis, 
implementation  and  training  expe¬ 
rience.  Candidates  should  have 
experience  working  with  inte¬ 
grated  mainframe  or  midrange 
systems  and  be  able  to  communi¬ 
cate  well  with  upper  manage¬ 
ment.  Travel  required.  S2K,  CY¬ 
BORG,  OR  PEOPLESOFT  experi¬ 
ence  a  plus!  SEND  RESUME  TO: 

Personnel  Dept. /Re:  Pro).  Mgr. 

HCA  International,  Inc. 

990  Hammond  Drive,  Suite  810 
Atlanta,  GA  30328 


ACQUISITION 
CONSULTING 
COMPANY 

Rapidly  expanding  national  computer 
consulting  company  is  looking  to  con¬ 
tinue  our  growth  through  acquisitions 
and/or  new  branch  start-up.  We  cur¬ 
rently  have  regional  offices  in  Roch¬ 
ester,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Tampa, 
Fairfax,  VA  and  Dallas. 

We  are  interested  in  acquisitions  of 
consulting  firms  in  new  markets  or 
adding  to  our  existing  markets.  We 
will  consider  equity  financing  ar¬ 
rangements. 

No  Brokers 

Principals/Experienced 
Industry  professionals  only 

James  P.  Growney,  President 
C.P.U.,  Inc. 

345  Woodcliff  Drive 
Falrport,  NY  14450 

OFC:  716-385-7710  FAX:  716-385-7918 


(CPU) 


FLORIDA  &  SOUTHEAST 


L.  Robert  Frank  &  Associates  is  a  Tampa  based, 
professional  recruitment  firm  specializing  in  the 
PERMANENT  PLACEMENT  of  Information  Technology 
individuals.  We  have  numerous  positions  available  in 
Florida  and  throughout  the  Southeast. 

Immediate  openings  now  exist  for: 


•  Powerbuilder . To  55K 

Heavy  Development 

•  Oracle/Sybase.. .To  55K 

Full  Life  Cycle 

•  Banking . To  52K 

Loans  and  Deposits 


•  C/C++ . To  45K 

DOS,  UNIX,  GUI 

•  Data  Modeling.. ..To  S2K 

CASE,  JAD,  DB  Admin 

•  PacBase . To  50K 

Devtp.  and  Training 


Please  call  or  send  resume  in  confidence  to: 

L.  Robert  Frank  A  Associates  Ph.  800-  741-3570 
2910  Bay  to  Bay  Blvd.,  #207  813-831  -8788 

Tampa,  Florida  33629  Fax:  813-835-5025 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  89 


Sizing  up  superstores 


mm  a 


Computerworld 
asked  three  com¬ 
puter  executives 
to  visit  a  comput¬ 
er  superstore  in 

their  area  and  report  on  the  store ’s 
value  for  the  corporate  buyer. 

OVERALL  IMPRESSIONS 

Superstores  have  a  lot  to  offer  for  the 
weekend  computerphile,  but  reactions 
are  mixed  when  it  comes  to 
their  worth  for  the  corpo¬ 
rate  buyer.  Their  best  at¬ 
tributes  are  convenience, 
the  chance  to  see  products 
side  by  side  and  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  a  reality  check 
for  prices. 


Ed:  “Unless  you  are  lucky 
to  find  a  mature  salesper¬ 
son  with  sufficient  experi¬ 
ence,  the  superstores  are 
useful  primarily  for  conve¬ 
nience  value.” 

Doug:  “It  seems  to  have  something  for 
the  computerphile  in  us  all.  The  wide  va¬ 
riety  is  good  from  a  volume  discount 
point  of  view.  Buyers  are  almost  faced 
with  too  many  decisions.” 

Jon:  “Clean-room  mentality  comes  to 
mass  marketing  retail.  The  fact  that  you 
can  eat  off  the  floor  at  these  places  gives 
them  a  sense  of  professionalism.  This  is 
critical,  especially  at  the  IS  level.  It  sepa¬ 
rates  superstores  from  some  of  the  PC 
boutiques.” 

PRODUCT  SELECTION 

Fair,  but  you  can  usually  do  better 


REPORT  CA 

RD 

How  well  do 
superstores  meet 
corporate  IS  needs \ 

ED 

[ 

I 

1 

1- 

1 

1 

DOUG 

JON 

through  other  channels.  Some  narrow 
product  lines  are  well-stocked. 

Ed:  ‘  Brand-name  products  are  well-rep¬ 
resented;  you  can  get  everything  from 
disks  to  Novell  NetWare  v3.11.  However, 
selection  is  more  limited  than  that  of 
many  mail-order  operations.  The  selec¬ 
tion  of  hardware  is  generally  adequate 
for  repairs  such  as  system  component 
purchases,  and  mainstream  software 
products  are  in  good  sup¬ 
ply-” 

Doug:  “I  was  pleasantly 
surprised  to  see  a  well- 
stocked  collection  of  almost 
every  Macintosh  model 
available,  from  the  high 
schooler’s  Mac  Classic  to 
the  screaming  Quadra  950. 
There  also  was  a  good  col¬ 
lection  of  printers  and  oth¬ 
er  peripherals  available. 
During  my  visit,  there  were 
three  product  demonstra¬ 
tions,  which  gave  me  a  taste 
of  Ami  Pro  and  a  nibble  of  multimedia.  ” 

PRICES 

Competitive  but  on  the  high  side.  Best 
buys  are  individual  system  components. 

Doug:  “The  prices  fell  somewhere  be¬ 
tween  retail  and  mail  order,  but  I  really 
didn’t  see  any  prices  out  of  whack.” 

Ed:  “System  pricing  seems  to  have  be¬ 
come  more  competitive  but  is  still  slight¬ 
ly  higher  than  normal  IS  channels.  Com¬ 
ponents  such  as  disk  drives  and  memory 
are  lower  than  the  manufacturers’  pric¬ 
ing  —  about  20%  to  25%  for  disk  drives. 


EDWARD  COCKS 

Lead  technical  analyst 
at  a  major  financial 
institution  in  Colorado 


DOUGLAS  E.  WELCH 

Support  analyst  at  a 
major  entertainment  cor¬ 
poration  in  Los  Angeles 


JONATHAN  BERG 

IS  director,  the  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Chapter  of  The 
American  Cancer  Society 


Software  seems  reasonably  priced  but  is 
roughly  5%  to  10%  higher  than  the  best 
mail-order  and  other  corporate  resell¬ 
ers.  Even  these  differences  can  often  be 
resolved  because  many  stores  have  a 
‘meet  the  competition’s  price’  strategy.” 
Jon:  “Prices  are  very  close  to  traditional 
resellers,  especially  for  hardware,  and 
some  are  even  a  few  dollars  less.” 

SALES  STAFF  EXPERIENCE 

Many  floor  representatives  are  at  the  lev¬ 
el  of  knowledgeable  hobbyists.  They 
know  narrow  product  lines  but  lack  real- 
world  corporate  computing  experience. 

Doug:  “These  weren’t  your  typical, 
straight-out-of-high  school  salespeople. 
They  seemed  knowledgeable  and  eager 
to  help.  Most  appeared  to  be  between  20 
and  30  years  old  and  had  a  modicum  of 
technical  expertise.” 

Ed:  “Corporate  buyers  must  do  their 
homework,  because  although  the  sales¬ 
people  are  generally  knowledgeable  on 
narrow  product  lines,  they  lack  expo¬ 
sure  to  competitive  products  and  busi¬ 
ness  computing  issues  such  as  network¬ 
ing,  host  computing,  system  scalability 
and  the  reality  of  supporting  large  num¬ 
bers  of  users  in  the  workplace.” 


Jon:  “I  spoke  with  the  store  manager  and 
inquired  as  to  the  mLx  of  personnel.  Yes, 
they  had  the  usual  suspects  —  power 
users,  home  enthusiasts  and  a  smatter- 
ingof  Home  ShoppingClub  refugees.  But 
the  real  news  is  that  the  bits  and  bytes 
boys  and  girls  were  there  in  force  — 
downsized,  outsourced  but  still  deter¬ 
mined.  I  made  a  mental  note  to  drop  by 
the  personnel  office  and  pick  up  an  ap¬ 
plication — just  incase.” 

TECHNICAL  SERVICE  AND  TRAINING 

While  it’s  difficult  to  determine  this  on  a 
site  visit,  technical  service  seemed  up  to 
par.  Well-rounded  classes  and  seminars 
are  also  provided. 

Doug:  “CompUSA  provides  a  training 
center  with  a  variety  of  classes  and  a 
good  selection  of  magazines  and  books. 
The  training  is  offered  in  the  typical  lev¬ 
els  from  beginning  to  advanced.” 

Jon:  “Each  Computer  City  outlet  has  a 
fully  equipped  training  center  that  ca¬ 
ters  to  both  the  home  and  corporate  user 
communities,  at  a  price  point  that  will 
impact  the  PC  training  industry.” 


Compiled  by  Jodie  Naze,  associate  editor, 
features. 


,  mr 


9*1°^ 


.10^ 


1 _ 


LARGE  INVENTORY  INCLUDING: 

■1  9221/120  ■■  9221/150 

9221/130  »  Extensive  slock  of  features 

Call  us  for  your  9370/9221  needs. 

Executive  Infosource! 

Offering  full  service  technical  support. 


rru  a 

./ 1 


708  215-9370 


Fax:  708  215-9992 


New/Reconditioned 


Equipment 

Whatever  your  re¬ 
quirements  are  for  Digi¬ 
tal  Equipment,  call  CSI 

first!  Buying,  selling,  trading, 
leasing,  consignments  -  we 
do  it  all! 

CSI  sells  all  equipment 
with  a  30  day  unconditional 
guarantee  on  parts  and  labor 
and  is  eligible  tor  DEC 
meintenence. 

Offering  systems,  disk 
drives,  tape  drives,  printers, 
terminals,  memory,  options, 
boards,  upgrades  and  many 
more 

Distributors  Wanted 
Com  purer 

vdl  Systems,  Inc. 

83  Eastman  St 
Easton,  MA  02334 
1-800-426-5499 
In  Mass.  (508)  230-3700 

FAX  (508)  238-8250 


•  UPS  SYSTEMS 

•  STANDBY  GEN  SETS 

•  LIEBERT  A/C 

•  ACCESS  FLOORING 


t  r  7/ase*- 


Computer  SJtm  Tmchnologios,  Inc 

-^77/ \  - 


262  S.  Military  Trail 
Deerfield  Beach,  FL  33442 


1-800-226-0784 

305-425-0638 


COMPUTERWORLD 

Product  Classified 
Pages 

Examines  the  issues  while 
computer  professionals 
examine  your  message. 
Call  for 
all  the  details. 

(800)  343-6474 

(In  MA„  508/879-0700) 


90  Computerworld  May  31.  1993 


Classified 


_ 


Buy  /  Sell  /  Lease 


It’s  the 
Product 

Classified  Pages 

Reach  Computer 
Professionals 
Where  They 
Shop  For: 

□  Buy/Sell/Lease 

□  Conversions 

□  Hardware 

□  Software 

□  Time/Services 

□  T  raining/Education 

□  Peripherals/Supplies 

□  Solutions  Directory 

□  Communications 

□  Business  Opportunities 

□  Used  Equipment 
Listings 

□  Graphics/Desktop 

Publishing 

□  Bids/Proposals/ 

Real  Estate 

(800) 

343-6474 

(in  MA„  508/879-0700) 


Specializing  in: 

•  RISC  System/6000 
(1  month  rentals 
available) 

•  Workstations 

•  AS/400 

•  System/36 


•  Personal  Computers 

•  Data  Communications 

•  U.  P.  S.  Systems 

•  Peripherals 

•  Upgrades 

•  Parts 


COMPUTER 

MARKETPLACE 


800-858-1144  Ext.  97 

Computer  Marketplace  prides  itself  on  being 
your  one  call  computer  hardware  solution. 

Corporate  Headquarters 

205  E.  5th  St.,  Corona,  CA  91719  •  909-735-2102 


Computer  Marketplace  East 
209-742-C 

rni  a 


Communication  Division 
609-730-1145 


Official  UDS/Motorola  Distributor 


Your  RISC  SYSTEM/6000  Source 

Data  trends 


HARDWARE 

MIGRATION 

ENGINEERING  SERVICES 
ENTERPRISE  SERVICES 

RISC  SYSTEM/6000 

SERIES/1  (We  re  still  the  leader!) 

SYSTEM  36/38 
AS/400 

937X,  4300,  468X 
PS/2,  INDUSTRIAL  PC 


•  Systems,  Processors,  Peripherals,  Upgrades,  Parts 

•  Turnkey  Conversion,  Emulation,  Data  Transfer, 

AIX  Support,  Application  Re-Engineering 

•  Consolidation  Services,  Cable  Systems, 
Fleld/Technical  Services,  Refurb/Packing  Services 

•  Enterprise-wide  Planning,  Complex  Systems 
Integration,  DAE  and  RDBMS  Incorporation 

BUY  •  SELL  •  LEASE 

Call  for  a  complete  listing  of 
products  and  services  provided 

1-800 -FOR-RISC 

612-942-9830 

10250  Valley  View  Rd.,  Suite  149,  Eden  Prairie,  MN  55344 


DEMPSEY. 

WHERE  IBM  QUAl/TY /S 
SECOND  NATURE. 


•  RS/6000 
•  SER/ES/1 
•  SYSTEM  36/33 
• 9370 

•  /A/DUS TR/Al  PC 
•  ES/9000 
AS/400 


Bi/Y-LEASE-  SEU 
•  Processors 
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For  pretested  equipment  f/ex/b/e  financing, 
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fSOOJ 888-2000. 


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IBM  is  a  registered  trademark  of  Internationa/  Business  Machines  Corporation. 


ANOTHER  REASON  WHY 
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the  weekly  computer  newspaper  of  choice  since  1  967  -  that  means  Computerworld's 
loyal  readers  will  expect  to  see  your  classified  message  in  Computerworld's  Product 
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To  place  your  ad,  call  John  Corrigan,  Vice  President/ 

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BOSTON  SF 

May  3-7  May  10-14 


CHICAGO  May  24 

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COMPUTERWORLD 

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delivers  your  message 
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product  or  service. 

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across  all  ranges  of  to¬ 
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you’re  selling,  advertise 
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delivers  readers  that 
plan  to  buy  YOUR  prod¬ 
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for 

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Learn  how  to  use  one  application  development  CASE  tool  to  develop 
sophisticated,  industrial  strength  applications  to  run  on  AS/400,  Unix, 
mainframes,  client/server  ana  mucn  more! 

Whether  vou're  trying  to  build  a  new  application,  installing  a 
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PRODUCT  CLASSIFIED 
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Where  America's  Computer 
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(in  MA;  508/879-0700) 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  91 


Classified 


When  it's  time 
to  get  down  to 
business... 

...  for  the  outsourcing 
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open  systems,  Martin  Marietta  can  find  a 
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REMOTE  _ _ , 

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■  ~  I  INFORMATION 

SYSTEMS, INC 

Your  best  choice  for  mainframe  computing  services. 

815  Commerce  Drive,  Oak  Brook,  IL  60521  708-574-3636 

Cleveland  216-885-5080  New  England  617-595-8000 


Every  vendor 

on  this  page  has  a  well-equipped 
datacenter. 


We  all  have  large  systems  plenty  of  MIPS,  and 
UPS  systems  with  the  software  you  need 
ONLY  ONE  WILL  EXCEED 
YOUR  EXPECTATIONS 
Only  one  runs  your  work  as  their  own,  Only 
one  minimizes  your  risk  and  maximizes  your 
cash  flow,  Only  one  will  get  the  job  done  totally 

YOU  RE  IN  CONTROL 
WHEN  YOU  PUT  US  IN  CONTROL 


Dedicated  to  Outsourcing  since  1980 


CSC  CompuSource 

A  Company  of  Computer  Sciences  Corporation 

110  MacKenan  Drive 
Cary,  North  Carolinea  27511 
919.  481  9341 


jrn  ALICOMP,  INC. 

The  "Boutique”  of  the  Computer  Services  World 

VM,  MVS,  VSE 

Outsourcing/Hmesharing/  Consulting 
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Two  State  of  the  Art  Locations 

20,000  sq.  ft.  Manhattan  complex 
100,000  sq.  ft.  Secaucus,  1\J  complex 

“Our  Platform  is  Excellence ” 

Serving  Clients  Since  1980 

(212)886-3600  •  (800)  274-5556 


COMPUTER 
RESERVES,  INC. 


•  has  2000  vendors 
nationwide  selling 
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paid  by  the  vendor. 

CALL  DONSEIDENAT 


(800)  882-0988 
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C0MPUTIRW0RLD 

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companies  that 
plan  to  buy  your 
product  or  service. 

From  PCs  to  minis,  main¬ 
frames  to  supercomput¬ 
ers,  Computerworld's 
readers  buy  products 
across  all  ranges  of  to¬ 
day’s  computers.  So  if 
you’re  selling,  advertise 
in  the  newspaper  that 
delivers  readers  that 
plan  to  buy  YOUR  prod¬ 
uct  or  service.  Advertise 
in  Computerworld's  Prod¬ 
uct  C/ossified  Pagesl 

For  more 
information, 
call: 

(800)  343-6474 

(in  MA,  508/879-0700) 


Bids  /  Proposals  /  Real  Estate 


MS  CENTRAL  DATA 
PROCESSING  AUTHORITY 

Sealed  proposals  will  be  received 
by  CDPA,  301  N.  Lamar  St.,  301 
Bldg.,  Suite  508,  Jackson,  MS 
39201  for  the  following: 

General  RFP  2425  due  Tues 
7/6/93  at  3:30  pm.  This  is  a  gen¬ 
eral  RFP  to  be  used  through  July 
1994  for  microcomputer-based 
systems,  peripherals  and  soft¬ 
ware  for  the  STATE  OF  MISSIS¬ 
SIPPI.  Updates  and  additional 
submissions  will  be  received 
Tues  11/2/93  and  Tues  3/1/94. 
Charge  $10.00. 

General  RFP  2426  due  Tues 
7/6/93  at  3:30  pm.  This  is  a  gen¬ 
eral  RFP  to  be  used  through  July 
1 994  for  submissions  ottered  for 
inclusion  on  the  EXPRESS 
PRODUCTS  LIST  to  be  used  in 
the  acquisition  of  specific  catego¬ 
ries  of  microcomputer-based  sys¬ 
tems.  peripherals  and  software 
for  the  STATE  OF  MISSISSIPPI. 
Submission  program  diskettes  in¬ 
cluded.  New  submissions  will  be 
required  Tues  11/2/93  and  Tues 
3/1/94.  Charge  $10.00. 

General  RFP  2427  due  Tues 
7/6/93  at  3:30  pm.  This  is  a  gen¬ 
eral  RFP  to  be  used  through  July 
1994  for  Apple  Computer,  Inc. 
and  compatible  systems,  periph¬ 
erals  and  software  for  the  STATE 
OF  MISSISSIPPI.  Updates  and 
additional  submissions  will  be  re¬ 
ceived  Tues  11/2/93  and  Tues 
3/1/94.  Charge  $10.00. 

RFP  2428  due  Tues  7/8/93  at 
3:30  pm  for  Computer  Assisted 
Software  Engineering  (CASE) 
software  for  the  CENTRAL  DATA 
PROCESSING  AUTHORITY.  No 
Charge. 

A  written  request  with  correct 
payment  only  for  RFPs  with  a 
charge.  No  phone  requests.  Cor¬ 
porate  checks  on  a  MS  bank,  cer¬ 
tified  check  or  POSTAL  money 
order  made  out  to  CDPA.  No 
cash  or  out-ot-state-checks. 
RFPs  with  no  charge  call  Kelli 
Brown  @  601-359-2604.  Pick  up 
RFPs  at  CDPA  between  1:00- 
3:00  p.m.  only.  CDPA  reserves 
the  right  to  reject  any/all  bids  and 
to  waive  informalities. 


COMPUICRWORLD 

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need  only 
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notice  to 
run  your  ad! 

When  you're  selling, 
you  want  your  adver¬ 
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into  the  future.  With 
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sue  because  we’ve  got 
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What’s  more,  your  ad 
can  appear  in  the 
Monday  issue  of  Com¬ 
puterworld  if  you  order 
just  2  days  prior  to  the 
issue.  Advertise  in  the 
newspaper  that  won't 
keep  you  waiting.  Ad¬ 
vertise  in  Comput¬ 
erworld's  Product  Clas¬ 
sified  Pagesl 

For  more 
information, 
call: 

(800) 

343-6474 

lin  MA,  508/879-0700) 


Used  Equipment  Listing 


IBM  RISC  6000  Model  530H  plus  all  the  extras. 
New  equipment  in  factory  cartons.  CPU  has  run 
for  90  day  test.  Willing  to  sell  as  package  at  25% 
discount.  Call  us  at  508-379-751 0  ext  362. 


Product  Showcase 


9-TRACK  AND  3480 

Rock  solid  solutions,  rock  bottom  prices. 

For  PCs  and  workstations  •  3480  Now  With  IDRCI 

Exchange  data  with  minis  &  mainframes  -  Reliable,  lightweight, 
compact,  1 6C0  and  6250  bpi  9-track  solutions  manufactured  by 
Overland  Data  -  PC  solutions  include  the  latest  Overland  Data 
contro.  c  s  ano  DOS  software  -  Many  workstation  platforms  are 

supported  too.  Call  7  am  -  5  pm  Pacific  Standard  Time. 

OPERLRtID  Dm. 

San  Diego,  CA  -  Since  1960 

EUROPE:  { 


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1  U  '  .<» 

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Do  your  users  know  which 
button  to  push? 

Custom  computer  keys  printed  with  color-coded 
software  commands  reduce  keyboarding  errors  and 
eliminate  time  lost  searching  for  commands  in  manuals, 
help  screens  and  pull-down  menus! 

Improve  Data  Entry  Accuracy  •  Cut  Training  Costs 

Hooleon  Corp.  Free  Catalog 

Dept.  COMW,  260  Justin  Dr.  800  937-1337 
Cottonwood,  AZ  86325  Fax:  602-634-4620 


Custom  Keyboards  .  .  . 

.  .  .  For  Custom  Applications 

•  Sun  Compatible  Keyboards 


Custom  Key  Caps,  Legends, 
Colors  and  Housings 
Custom  Cables  and  Connectors 
Integrated  BarCode  and 
Mag  Card  Readers 
Iso  Point®  Pointing  Device 


Engineering,  Development 
and  Production 

Low  Volume,  Quick  Turnaround 
and  Prototypes 
3  Year  Limited  Warranty 


SOLUTIONS  FOR  YOUR  SYSTEM  INTEGRATION  NEEDS 

KeySource  International  par™ers 

Division  ol  United  Plastics  Corporation  ^ QUALITY^  u"™lw  » 

2391  American  Avenue  TEL:  510-783-6066 

Hayward,  C A  94545  800-722-6066  FAX:  510-783-2993 


92  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


•  Consultants  •  Value  Added  Resellers  •  Marketing  Partners  •  OEMs  •  Systems  Integrators  •  Distributors 

To  list  your  company  so  that  Computerworld’s  readers  can  contact  you  directly, 
dial  800/343-6474,  x744.  Basic  company  listings  will  appear  26  consecutive  weeks  for  just  $499. 


4GL 

OMNItech  Consulting  Services,  Inc. 

Edison,  NJ  . (908)225-5577 

Rocajam 

Atlanta,  GA . (404)  612-0374 

ACCTG  SOFTWARE/SERVICES 

Arthur  Ellingsen  &  Co. 

Arlington  Heights,  IL . (708)  506-0555 

BayTech  Systems 

Burke,  VA . (703)764-8807 

Beacon  Application  Services  Corp. 

S.  Natick,  MA . (508)651-9923 

Myers-Holum,  Inc. 

New  York,  NY  . (212)753-5353. 

OPEN  SYSTEMS®  Accounting  Software 
Open  Systems  Holdings  Corp.  .  (800)  328-2276 
Origin  Technology  in  Business 

Columbus,  OH . (61 4)  431  -2345 

Phase  2  Consulting,  Inc. 

Cumberland,  Rl . (401 )  333-4536 

ADABASE 

ADA/NAT,  Inc. 

Tacoma,  WA . (206)  927-1219 

APPLICATIONS  DEVELOPMENT 

ADA/NAT,  Inc. 

Tacoma,  WA . (206)  927-1219 

Adia  Information  Services 

Towson,  MD  . (800)626-8082 

Atlis  Performance  Resources,  Inc. 

Rockville,  MD . (301)770-3000 

Avalon  Engineering,  Inc. 

Boston,  MA . (617)  247-7668 

James  Borta  &  Associates 

Hoffman  Estates,  IL  . (708)  882-1301 

Claremont  Consulting  Group,  Inc. 

Beaverton ,  OR  . (800)  441-1002 

ISA  Consultants 

Chicago,  IL . (800)  462-6301 

MICS  Applied  Concepts,  Inc. 

New  York,  NY . (212)  732-7452 

Origin  Technology  in  Business 

Columbus,  OH . (61 4)  431  -2345 

Price  Waterhouse 

New  York,  NY . (314)  425-0500 

Rocajam 

Atlanta,  GA . (404)612-0374 

AUTOMATION  AND  CONTROL 

Concept  XXI,  Inc. 

Cleveland,  OH  . (216)831-2121 

BANKING/FINANCIAL 

Intelligent  Financial  Perspectives,  Inc. 

Austin,  TX . (512)  343-7964 

Origin  Technology  in  Business 

Columbus,  OH . (61 4)  431  -2345 

Quatrix,  Inc. 

St.  Louis,  MO . (314)  434-6655 

BAR  CODE/DATA  COLLECT  SYS 

Sentinel  Business  Systems,  Inc. 

Milford,  CT . (203)874-3199 

C 

Decision  Software  Systems 

Willow  Grove,  PA  . (800)  682-0794 

CASE 

Integrated  Software  Specialists 
Schaumburg,  IL  . (708)  240-5070 

CLIENT  SERVER  DEVELOPERS 

ACR  Inc.  (PowerBuilder  VAR) 

New  York,  NY . (212)  629-3370 

R.M.  Boerma,  Inc. 

Hazleton,  PA . (717)454-8159 

Client  Server  Systems,  Inc. 

Wellesley,  MA . (617)  239-8065 


Condor  Consulting  Ltd. 

Chicago,  IL . (312)  751-8654 

Intelligent  Financial  Perspectives,  Inc. 

Austin,  TX . (512)  343-7964 

loele/Griggs  &  Associates,  Inc. 

Paoli,  PA . (800)  220-6237 

Line  Systems  Consulting  &  Training 

Bloomfield,  CT  . (203)286-9060 

Logic  Plus  Open  Systems,  Inc. 

Northbrook,  IL . (708)  559-9697 

Lotus  Consulting  Services  Group 

Cambridge,  MA  . (617)  693-4730 

Marathon  Systems 

San  Francisco,  CA . (415)  362-0500 

PowerCerv  (PowerBuilder  VAR) 

Tampa,  FL  . (813)281-2990 

SHL  Systemhouse 

Chicago,  IL . (312)939-0099 

SPECTRUM  ASSOCIATES 

Woburn,  MA . (617)  932-0932 

The  Ultimate  Corporation 

Hanover,  NJ . (201)887-1000 

WATERFIELD:  PowerBuilder  Sales  &  Consulting 

Lexington,  MA  . (617)  863-8400 

Zeitech,  Inc. 

Stamford,  CT  . (203)  359-9807 

COMMUNICATIONS 

Decision  Software  Systems 

Willow  Grove,  PA . (800)  682-0794 

CONTRACT  PROGRAMMING 

ACJ  &  Associates,  Inc. 

Atlanta,  GA . (404)  454-61 44 

ADA/NAT,  INC. 

Tacoma,  WA . (206)  927-1219 

Alliance  Consulting  Group,  Inc. 

McLean,  VA . (703)  243-6979 

T.J.  Brady  &  Associates 

Sommerville,  NJ . (908)  359-0236 

Jerry  Cohen  &  Associates 

Portland,  OR . (503)  289-7706 

Comsys  Technical  Services,  Inc. 

Rockville,  MD . (301)921-3600 

Decision  Software  Systems 

Willow  Grove,  PA . (800)  683-0794 

DGS  Electronics 

Albany,  NY . (518)869-1305 

ISDN  Conson,  Inc. 

Roslyn  Heights,  NY . (516)  265-0341 

TechniSource,  Inc. 

Ft.  Lauderdale,  FL . (305)  493-8601 

Quatrix,  Inc. 

St.  Louis,  MO . (314)  434-6655 

CUSTOMER  SERVICE 

The  Help  Desk,  Inc. 

Phoenix,  AZ  . (602)  460-1 926 

SPECTRUM  ASSOCIATES 

Woburn,  MA . (617)932-0932 

DATA  CONVERSION 

Data  Conversion,  Inc. 

Minneapolis,  MN . (612)  525-0649 


DATA  CTR  DESIGN/MGMT 


21st  Century  Innovations,  Inc. 
Aliso  Viejo,  CA  . 

.  (800)  327-4627 

Booz  Allen  &  Hamilton 

NY,  NY . 

.(212)  697-1900 

Condor  Consulting  Ltd. 
Chicago,  IL . 

.(312)  751-8654 

DataWright,  Inc. 

Westmont,  IL  . 

.(800)  377-3191 

DBMS 

Business  Application  Developers,  Inc. 

Anchorage,  AK . 

On-Line  Systems  Group 

.  (907)  562-5646 

St.  Petersburg,  FL . 

.  (800)  322-5265 

DISASTER  RECOVERY 

Computer  Security  Consultants,  Inc. 

Ridgefield,  CT . (800)  925-2724 

Raymond  Professional  Mgmt,  Inc. 

Roswell,  G A . (404)587-4090 

Recovery  Management,  Inc. 

REXSYS®  Software . (800)  RMI-8866 

Strohl  Systems 

LDRPS  Software . (800)  634-2016 

EDUCATION  &  TRAINING 


Berard  Software  Eng.,  Inc.  (301)  417-9884 

Specializing  in  object-oriented  consulting,  training  and 
products.  For  more  information  call/write  Berard  Software 
Engineering  Inc.,  101  Lakeforest  Blvd.,  Ste.  360,  Gaith¬ 
ersburg,  MD  20877 


Carl  A.  Argila,  Ph.D.,  Inc. 

Los  Angeles,  CA . (800)  347-6903 

National  Education  Training  Group,  Inc. 

Naperville,  IL . (708)  369-3000 

James  Martin  Insight,  Inc. 

Naperville,  IL . (708)  983-4808 

Object  Oriented  Preparation  Services,  Inc. 
Robbinsville,  NJ  . (609)259-0601 

ELECTRONIC  DATA  INTERCHANGE 

DNS  Associates,  Inc. 

Burlington,  MA  . (800)  624-6354 

EDI  Able,  Inc, 

Malvern,  PA  . (215)  993-0813 

Integrated  Software  Specialists 
Schaumburg,  IL  . (708)240-5070 

ENTERPRISE  RESOURCE  PLNG 

FOURTH  SHIFT  CORPORATION  (JIT) 
Minneapolis,  MN . (800)  433-2467 

EXPERT  SYSTEMS 

FOUNDATION  TECHNOLOGIES,  INC. 

Boston,  MA . (617)  720-2760 

OXKO  Corporation 

Anapolis,  MD  . (410)  266-1 67 1 

GOV’T/MUNICIPALITIES 

Arthur  Ellingsen  &  Co. 

Arlington  Heights,  IL . (708)  506-0555 

IDC,  Inc. 

Chicago,  IL . (312)  464-1020 

GROUP  WARE/E-MAIL 

ACR  Inc. (Lotus  Notes  VAR) 

New  York,  NY . (212)  629-3370 

GUI  FRONT  ENDS 

WATERFIELD:  PowerBuilder  Sales  &  Consulting 

Lexington,  MA  . (617)  863-8400 

HEALTH  CARE 

Systems  Resources  Corp. 

Burlington,  MA  . (617)  270-9228 

HELP  DESK 

The  Help  Desk,  Inc. 

Phoenix,  AZ  . (602)  460-1926 

HUMAN  RESOURCE  SYSTEMS 

PC/LAN  Personnel,  Benefit,  and  HR  Systems 
STS,  Inc.  Rolling  Meadows,  IL .  .  (800)  227-2729 

INSURANCE 

Programming  Resources  Company 
Hartford,  CT . (203)728-1428 

IMAGING 

Avalon  Engineering,  Inc. 

Boston,  MA . (617)  247-7668 

Burns  Consulting  Group 

Scituate,  MA . (617)982-1888 

Grumman  InfoConversion 

Holtsville,  NY . (516)  737-7188 

Imaging  Expo,  NY 

Sept.  28-30  . 800  44-IMAGE 


United  Systems  and  Software,  Inc. 

Maitland,  FL . (407)875-2120 

MANUFACTURING 

Expandable  Software,  Inc. 

Santa  Cruz,  CA . (408)  261-7880 

GE  Consulting  Services,  Inc. 

Rockville,  MD . (301)340-5100 

Matra  Datavision,  Inc. 

Tewksbury,  MA . (508)  640-0940 

SPECTRUM  ASSOCIATES 

Woburn,  MA . (617)932-0932 

Symmetrix,  Inc. 

Lexington,  MA  . (617)  862-3200 

MANUFACTURING  SOFTWARE 

Effective  Management  Systems 

Milwaukee,  Wl . (414)  359-9800 

Intrepid  Software,  Inc. 

Burlington,  MA  . (617)273-2920 

North  Coast  Automation,  Inc. 

Cleveland,  OH  . (216)  473-3800 

Man-Trak®  -  Management  Tracking  System 
Open  Systems  Holdings  Corp..  (800)  328-2276 

NETWORKING 

A-net 

Eugene,  OR  . (800)  444-9796 

PAYROLL  SYSTEMS 

PC/LAN  Payroll,  HR,  and  Tax  Systems 
STS,  Inc.  Rolling  Meadows,  IL .  .  (800)  227-2729 

PRODUCTIVITY 

Koch  Productivity  Consulting 

Bel  Air,  MD . (410)838-8721 

Productivity  Management  Group,  Inc. 

East  Amherst,  NY . (716)  689-7724 

SALES  FORCE  AUTOMATION 

Gateway  Systems  Corporation 

East  Lansing,  Ml . (800)  333-9366 

SCHEDULING/PLANNING 

Summit  Solutions,  Inc. 

Chesterton,  IN . (219)  929-4189 

SECURITY 

Phase  2  ConsultingTTnc. 

Cumberland,  Rl . (401 )  333-4536 

Z-Lock  Mfg.  Co. 

Redondo  Beach,  CA . (310)  372-4842 

SOFTWARE  DEVELOPERS 

Cadre  Technologies,  Inc. 

Providence,  Rl  . (401 )  351  -5950 

SOFTWARE  FOR  SCHOOLS 

Matrix  Computer  Systems,  Inc. 

Milwaukee,  Wl . (414)  541-3028 

SPEECH  INTEGRATION 

Zeitech,  Inc. 

Stamford,  CT  . (203)  359-9807 

STORAGE  MGMT  SOFTWARE  SVCS 

Adept 

Riverside,  CA . (909)  688-7012 

TRANSPORTATION  SOFTWARE 

KCITThe  Traffic  Manager 

Ft.  Lauderdale,  FL . (305)  587-2270 

UTILITIES 

OASIS  Technology,  Inc. 

Oxnard,  CA . (805)  988-1020 

WHOLESALE  DISTRIBUTION 

Arthur  Ellingsen  &  Co. 

Arlington  Heights,  IL  . (708)  506-0555 

ADD+ON®  Software  Advantage/'V 

Open  Systems  Holdings  Corp  (800)  328-2276 


Computerworld  May  31,  1993  93 


SALES  OFFICES 


Associate  Publisher/Senior  Vice  President  Sales 

Kevin  McPherson 

Computerworld  Headquarters:  375  Cochituate  Road.  P.0  Box  9171,  Framingham,  MA  01701-9171  Phone:  508-879-0700,  FAX:  508-879-0446 


BOSTON:  Vice-President  Eastern  Advertising  Sales/David  Pet¬ 
erson.  Sr.  District  Managers/Bill  Cadigan,  Sherry  Driscoll,  Dis- 
tnct  Manager/John  Watts.  Sales  Assistants/ Alice  Longley,  Lisa 
Ikels.  Linda  Clinton,  COMPUTERWORLD,  375  Cochituate  Road, 
Box  3171.  Framingham.  MA  01701-9171  (508)  879-0700 
FAX:  (508)  872-2915 

CHICAGO:  Vice-President  Eastern  Advertising  Sales/David 
Peterson,  COMPUTERWORLD,  1011  East  Touhy  Avenue,  Suite 
550.  Des  Plaines.  IL  60018  (800)  343-6474 

NEW  YORK:  Senior  District  Manager/Fred  LoSapio,  District 
Managers/Paula  D'Amico,  Rich  Molden,  Sales  Assistants/ 
Susan  Kusnic,  Jean  Dellarobba,  COMPUTERWORLD,  Mack 
Center  1.  365  West  Passaic  St.,  Rochelle  Park,  NJ  07662 
(201)  587-0090  FAX:  (201)  712-9786 

LOS  ANGELES:  Southwestern  Regional  Manager/Fran  Cowen, 
Sales  Assistant/Judi  Taylor,  COMPUTERWORLD,  18008  Sky 
Park  Circle,  Suite  145.  Irvine.  CA  92714  (714)  261-1230  FAX: 
(714)  250-4881 

SAN  FRANCISCO:  Vice-President  Western  Advertising  Sales: 
Richard  Espinoza,  Executive  Assistant/ Leticia  Lehane,  Senior 
District  Managers/Ernie  Chamberlain,  Kaye  Sharbrough, 
District  Managers/Michele  Gerus,  Sharon  R.  O'Brien,  Sales 
Assistants/Candace  Splivalo,  Michelle  Beals,  Emily  Gaytan, 
Sunnie  Scarlett  COMPUTERWORLD,  500  Airport  Boulevard, 
Suite  400,  Burlingame,  CA  94010  (415)  347-0555  FAX: 
(415)  347-8312 

ATLANTA:  Senior  District  Manager/Bernie  Hockswender,  Sales 
Assistant/Debra  Brown,  COMPUTERWORLD,  1400  Lake  Hearn 
Drive,  Suite  330,  Atlanta,  GA  30319  (404)  394-0758  FAX: 
(404)  255-5123 

DALLAS:  Southeastern  District  Manager/Darren  Ford,  Sales 


Assistant/Brenda  Shipman,  COMPUTERWORLD,  14651  Dallas 
Parkway.  Suite  304,  Dallas,  TX  75240  (214)  233-0882  FAX: 
(214)  385-1603 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.:  District  Manager/Rich  Molden,  COM¬ 
PUTERWORLD,  Mack  Center  1,  365  West  Passaic  St..  Rochelle 
Park,  NJ  07662  (201)  587-0090  FAX:  (201)  712-9786 

CUSTOM  PUBLICATIONS: 

Vice  President/Larry  Craven,  Director  of  Publishing  Sen/ices/ 
Carolyn  Novack,  Sales  Assistant/Heidi  Schuberthan,  FAX: 
(508)  879-0446. 

CLASSIFIED  ADVERTISING  SALES: 

Vice  President/Classified  Advertising/John  Corrigan,  Marketing 
Director/ Derek  E.  Hulitzky,  375  Cochituate  Rd.,  Framingham, 
MA  01701-9171  (800)  343-6474,  In  MA  (508)  879-0700 

PRODUCT  CLASSIFIED  ADVERTISING: 

Northeast/Great  Lakes:  Account  Manager/Paul  Bonarrigo,  375 
Cochituate  Rd.,  Framingham,  MA  01701-9171  (800)  343- 
6474,  In  MA  (508)  879-0700 

South:  Senior  Account  Executive/Jay  Novack,  375  Cochituate 
Rd.,  Framingham,  MA  01701-9171  (800)  343-6474,  In  MA 
(508)  879-0700 

West:  Sales  Supervisor/F.  Jay  Saveli,  375  Cochituate  Rd.. 
Framingham.  MA  01701-9171  (800)  343-6474,  Ext.  184,  In 
MA  (508)  879-0700 

RECRUITMENT  ADVERTISING  SALES  OFFICES: 

New  England:  Regional  Manager/Nancy  Percival,  375  Cochit¬ 
uate  Rd.,  Framingham,  MA  01701-9171  (800)  343-6474,  In 
MA  (508)  879-0700,  Account  Executive/Karen  Lesko,  (800) 

CW  PUBLISHING  INC. 


343-6474,  In  MA  (508)  879-0700 

Mid-Atlantic:  Regional  Manager/Valerie  Galbo,  Mack  Center  1, 
365  West  Passaic  SL,  Rochelle  Park,  NJ  07662  (201)  587- 
0090,  Account  Executive/ Caryn  Dlott,  (800)  343-6474 

South-Atlantic:  Regional  Manager/Katie  Kress,  8304 
Professional  Hill  Drive,  Fairfax,  VA  22031  (703)  573-4115,  Sr. 
Account  Executive/Pauline  Smith  (800)  343-6474 

Midwest:  Regional  Manager/Pat  Powers,  1011  East  Touhy 
Avenue,  Suite  550,  Des  Plaines,  IL  60018  (708)  8274433, 
Sr.  Account  Executive/Ellen  Cross  (800)  343-6474 

West:  Regional  Manager/Barbara  Murphy,  18008  Skypark 
Circle.  Ste.  145,  Irvine,  CA  92714  (714)  250-0164,  Sr. 
Account  Executive/Chnstopher  Glenn  (800)  343-6474 

DIRECT  RESPONSE  CARDS: 

East:  Account  Manager/Norma  Tamburrino,  Mack  Center  1, 
365  West  Passaic  St.,  Rochelle  Park,  NJ  07662  (201)  587- 
0090 

West:  Account  Executive/Jill  Greer,  18008  Skypark  Circle,  Ste. 
145,  Irvine,  CA  92714  (714)  250-0164 

IDG  INTERNATIONAL  MARKETING  SERVICES: 

President/Frank  Cuttita,  Eastern  Advertising  Manager/ 
Veronique  Lamarque,  187  Oaks  Road,  Framingham,  MA 
01701  (508)  879-0700 

Western  Advertising  Manager/Ginny  Pohlman,  180  Harbor 
Drive.  Suite  215,  Sausalito,  CA  94965  (415)  331-7571  FAX: 
(415)332-0778 


An  IDG  Company:  The  World’s  Leader  in  Information  Services  on  Information  Technology 

CEO  &  Publisher 

Gary  J.  Beach 

Computerworld  Headquarters:  375  Cochituate  Road,  P.O.  Box  9171,  Framingham,  MA  01701-9171  Phone:  508-879-0700,  FAX:  508-8754394 

Bill  Laberis  Kevin  McPherson  Matthew  Smith  Steven  F.  Woit 

Senior  Vice-President  Associate  Publisher  Senior  Vice-President  Senior  Vice-President 

Editorial  Senior  Vice  President/Sales  Operations  Marketing 

PUBLISHER'S  OFFICE  Executive  Assistant  to  the  CEO/Publisher,  Karen  Elliott.  SALES  -  DISPLAY  Advertising  Director.  Carolyn  Novack.  Display  Advertising  Production  Manager,  Maureen 
Hanley.  Display  Advertising  Coordinators,  Peggy  Hennessy,  Paula  Wright.  SALES  -  CLASSIFIED  Vice  President  Classified  Advertising,  John  Corrigan.  Classified  Marketing  Director.  Derek  E 
Hulitzky.  Classified  Operations  Director.  Cynthia  Delany  MARKETING  Director,  Marketing  Communications,  Mary  Doyle.  Account  Manager,  Marketing  Communications.  Elizabeth  Phillips. 
Manager,  Trade  Show  &  Conventions.  Audrey  Shohan  Marketing  Communications  Project  Coordinator,  Susan  Thaxter.  Administrative  Assistant,  Patty  Faherty.  CIRCULATION  Vice-President 
Circulation,  Gail  Odeneal.  Director  of  Circulation  Management,  Maureen  Burke  PRODUCTION  Production  Director,  Christopher  P.  Cuoco.  Production  Manager,  Beverly  Wolff.  SYSTEMS  Vice 
President  Information  Systems.  Linda  Nelson  Administrative  Sales  Assistant,  Lois  Beninati. 

GLOBAL  LEADERSHIP  NETWORK 


ARGENTINA:  Ruben  Argento,  CW  Communicaciones  S/A,  Av. 
Belgrano  406-Piso  9,  CP  1092  Buenos  Aires.  Phone:  (Oil)  541 
342  5583.  Telex:  (390)  22644  (BAZAN  AR).  FAX:  (Oil)  541  331 
7672. 

ASIA:  S.W.  Chan,  Asia  Computerworld  Communications  Ltd.,  7014 
Kam  Chung  Bldg.,  54  Jaffe  Road,  Wanchai,  Hong  Kong,  Phone: 
(01 1)  852  861  3238.  FAX:  (01 1)  852  861  0953. 

AUSTRALIA:  Don  Kennedy,  IDG  Communications  Pty.  Ltd.,  3743 
Alexander  Street,  Crows  Nest,  NSW  2065.  Phone:  (Oil)  61  2 
4395133.  Telex:  (790)  AA74752  (COMWOR).  FAX:  (Oil)  61  2 
439  5512. 

AUSTRIA:  Manfred  Weiss,  IDG  Communications  Verlagsges  mbH, 
Zieglergasse  6,  A- 1070  Wien,  Austna.  Phone:  (Oil)  43  222  523 
16  310.  Telex:  (847)  115542  (SCH/A)  FAX:  (Oil)  43  222  523  05 
08  33. 

BRAZIL:  Ney  Kruel,  Computerworld  do  Brazil  Ltda,  Praca  Floriano, 
19/26  Andar.  20031  Rio  de  Janiero,  RJ  Brazil.  Phone:  (Oil)  55 
21  240  8225.  Telex:  (391)  21  30830  BR.Sao  Paulo: 
Computerworld  do  Brazil  Ltda.,  Rua  Joaquim  Floriano,  488/3 
andar-CEP  04534,  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil,  Phone:  (Oil)  55  11  852 
8536.  Telex:  (391)  21  30838  (WORD  BR).  FAX:  (Oil)  55  21  240 
7759. 

COLUMBIA:  Ciro  A.  Villate,  Computerworld  Colombia,  Transversal 
23  No.  58-28.  Airmail  Box  54018,  Bogata,  Colombia,  Phone: 
(011)571  310  0199.  FAX:  (Oil)  571  211  6848. 

DENMARK:  Preben  Engell,  IDG  Danmark  A/S,  Krumtappan  4  DK 
2500  Valby  Denmark.  Phone:  (Oil)  45  36  442800.  Telex:  (855) 
31566.  FAX:  (011)45  36  442033. 

FRANCE:  Francois  Chaussonmere,  IDG  Communications  France. 
Immeuble  La  Fayette,  2.  Place  des  Vosges.  Cedex  65.  92051  Paris 
la  Defense,  France.  Phone:  (Oil)  33  1  4904  7900.  Telex:  (842) 
613234F.  FAX:  (Oil)  33  1  4904  7800. 

GERMANY:  Eckhard  Utpadel.  IDG  Communications  Verlag  AG, 
Rheinstrasse  26/28,  Postfach  40  04  29,  8000  Munich  40, 
Germany.  Phone:  (Oil)  49  89  360860.  Telex:  (841)  5215350. 


FOREIGN  EDITORIAL/SALES  OFFICES 

(COMW  D).  FAX:  (Oil)  49  89  3  60  86109. 

HUNGARY:  Istvan  Biro,  IDG  Communications  Hungary  Publisher 
Ltd.,  1016  Budapest,  Gellerhogy  u. 30-32,  Postal  address  H-1536, 
Budapest,  P.O.B.  386  Hungary,  Phone:  (Oil)  36  1  156  9122, 
Telex:  (861)  226307  (Kshp  H),  Fax:  (Oil)  361  1  202  5565. 

INDIA:  Rohini  Khuller,  Media  Transasia  India  Ltd.,  103  Anand  Lok, 
New  Delhi  110049,  India.  Phone:  (Oil)  91  11  644  0110.  FAX: 
(011)91  11  643  2950. 

ITALY:  Brunello  Bossi,  IDG  Communications  Italia,  Via  Mecenate 
30/14,  20138  Milano,  Italy.  Phone:  (Oil)  39  2  58  01  16  60. 
Telex:  (843)  335318.  FAX:  (Oil)  39  2  58  01  16  70. 

JAPAN:  Jim  Povec,  IDG  Communications/Japan.  Kioicho  TBR  Bldg., 
6F,  Rm.  616.  5-7  Kojimachi,  Chiyodaku  Tokyo  102,  Japan.  Phone: 
(Oil)  81  33  3222  6411.  Telex:  (781)  252  4217.  FAX:  (Oil)  81 
33  3222  6566. 

MEXICO:  Henry  Morales,  Computerworld  Mexico  S.A.  de  C.V., 
Gonzalez  de  Cossio  #334,  Colonia  del  Valle,  03100  Mexico  D.F.. 
Phone:  (Oil)  52  5  669  4454.  Telex:  (383)  177  1300  (ACHAME). 
FAX:  (011)52  5  669  1140. 

THE  NETHERLANDS:  Ruud  Bakker,  IDG  Communications  B.V., 
Schipholweg  1/P.O.  Box  5446,  2034  LS/2000  GK  Haarlem,  The 
Netherlands.  Phone:  (Oil)  31  23  366  814.  Telex:  (844)  18242 
(CWCOM  NL).  FAX:  (Oil)  31  23  366  184. 

NEW  ZEALAND:  Martin  Taylor,  IDG  Communications  Ltd.,  2nd  Floor. 
15  Augustus  Terrace.  Parnell,  Auckland  1,  New  Zealand.  Phone: 
(Oil)  64  9  779  902.  Fax:  (Oil)  64  9  774  604. 

NORWAY:  Morten  Hansen.  CW  Norge  A/S.  Hovinveien  43,  0576, 
Oslo  5.  Norway.  Phone.  (Oil)  472  647725.  Telex:  (856)  76476 
(CW  NOR  N).  FAX:  (Oil)  47  268  0152. 

PEOPLE'S  REPUBLIC  OF  CHINA:  Shen  Yao,  China  Computerworld, 
74  Lu  Gu  Road,  Box  750,  Beijing  100039,  People's  Republic  of 
China.  Phone:  (Oil)  861  81  0044.  Telex:  (716)  222214  (CCW 
CN).  FAX:  (011)861  821  7869. 

RUSSIA:  Boris  Antoniuk,  Information  Computer  Enterprise,  Prospekt 

INTERNATIONAL  DATA  GROUP 


Mira  187-98-22,  UDNH,  pavilion  #4,  129223  Moscow,  USSR  I.C.E. 
Phone:  (Oil)  709  5  187  8830.  Telex:  (871)  441  354.  FAX:  (Oil) 
709  5  188  5665. 

SINGAPORE:  S.W.  Chan,  Asia  Computerworld  Communications,  04- 
07  Parkway  Builders  Centre,  No.l  Marine  Parade  Central, 
Singapore  1544,  Republic  of  Singapore.  Phone:  (Oil)  65  345 
8383.  Telex:  (786)  RS  37003  (Comwor).  FAX:  (Oil)  65  345 
7097. 

SPAIN:  Paco  Zabala,  IDG  Communications,  S.A.,  Rafael  Calvo,  18, 
4B,  28010  Madrid,  Spain.  Phone:  (Oil)  34  1  319  4014.  Telex: 
(831)  45522  (CW  E).  FAX:  (Oil)  34  1  319  6104. 

SWEDEN:  Bengt  Marnfeldt,  CW  Communications  AB,  Sodra 
Hamnvagen  22,  S-115  41  Stockholm,  Sweden.  Phone:  (Oil)  46 
8667  9180.  Telex:  (854)  14904  (NOVACW).  FAX:  (Oil)  46  8665 
3132. 

SWITZERLAND:  Gebhard  Osterwalder,  CW  Publikationen  AG, 
Witikonerstrasse  no.  15,  Postfach  253,  CH  -  8030  Zurich, 
Switzerland.  Phone:  (Oil)  41  1  55  10  77.  Telex;  (854)  816710 
(CWCI  CH).  FAX:  (011)41  1  55  1135. 

TAIWAN:  Harry  Yen,  IDG  Communications/Taiwan,  11F-8,  No.  137, 
Section  1.  Fu  Hsin  South  Road,  Sec.  1,  Taipei  10639,  Taiwan, 
R.O.C.  Phone:  (Oil)  886  2  721  4302.  FAX:  (Oil)  886  2  777 
5339. 

UNITED  KINGDOM:  Ian  Thalmessinger,  CW  Communications  Ltd., 
99  Grays  Inn  Rd.,  London,  WCI  8UT,  United  Kingdom.  Phone:  (Oil) 
44  71  831  9252.  FAX:  (Oil)  44  71  978  0271.  Colin  Smith,  Oliver 
Smith  &  Partners,  Ltd.  18  Abbeville  Mews,  88  Clapham  Park  Road, 
London  SW4  7BX,  United  Kingdom.  Phone:  (Oil)  44  71  978 
1440.  FAX:  (Oil)  44  71  978  1550. 

VENEZUELA:  Kalman  von  Vajna  Nagy,  IDG  Comunicaciones  C.A., 
Torre  Maracaibo,  Piso  13.  Oficina  H,  Av.  Libertador,  Caracas, 
Venezuela.  Phone:  (Oil)  58  2  72  76  30.  FAX:  (Oil)  58  2 
724970. 


Patrick  J.  McGovern  Walter  Boyd  William  P.  Murphy  Robert  Farmer 

Board  Chairman  President  Vice  President  Finance  Vice  Chairman 


Computerworld  is  a  publication  of  International  Data  Group,  the 
world's  largest  publisher  of  computer-related  information  and  the 
leading  global  provider  of  information  services  on  information 
technology  International  Data  Group  publishes  over  190  computer 
publications  in  60  countnes.  Thirty  million  people  read  one  or  more 
International  Data  Group  publications  each  month.  International 
Data  Group’s  publications  include:  ARGENTINA'S  Computerworld 
Argentina.  Infoworid  Argentina;  ASIA'S  Computerworld  Hong  Kong, 
PC  World  Hong  Kong,  Computerworld  Southeast  Asia,  PC  World 
Singapore,  Computerworld  Malaysia.  PC  World  Malaysia; 
AUSTRALIA'S  Computerworld  Australia.  Australian  PC  World. 
Australian  Macworld.  Reseller  IDG  Sources;  AUSTRIA'S 
Computerweli  Oesierreich.  PC  Test;  BRAZIL'S  Computerworld. 
Mundo  IBM,  Mundo  Unix.  PC  World.  Publish;  BULGARIA'S 
Computerworld  Bulgana.  Ediworld,  PC  World  Bulgana.  CANADA'S 
Direct  Access.  Graduate  Computerworld.  InfoCanada  Network 
World  Canada;  CHILE’S  Computerworld.  Informetica;  COLOMBIA'S 
Computerworld  Columbia;  CZECH  REPUBLIC'S  Computerworld. 
Liektromka  PC  World  DENMARK'S  CAD/CAM  WORLD. 
Communications  Worio,  Computerworld  Danmark.  Computeiworid 
Focus.  C.mrputerworld  Uddannelse.  LOTUS  World.  Macintosh 
ProdfMkjiaiog.  Macworld  Danmark.  PC  World  Danmark.  PC  World 
ProduMgxiie  Amoows  Work!;  ECUADOR  S  PC  World:  EGYPT'S  PC 
World  M»dde  East:  FINLAND’S  Mikro  PC.  Tietovnkko.  Tietoverkko; 


FRANCE'S  Distributee,  GOLDEN  MAC,  InfoPC,  Languages  & 
Systems.  Le  Guide  du  Monde  Informatique,  Le  Monde  Informatique. 
Telecoms  &  Reseaux;  GERMANY'S  Computerwoche, 
Computerwoche  Focus,  Computerwoche  Extra.  Computerwoche 
Kamere,  edv  aspekte.  Information  Management.  Macwelt,  Netzwelt. 
PC  Welt.  PC  Woche,  Publish,  Unit;  HUNGARY’S  Computerworld  SZT, 
PC  World;  INDIA'S  Computers  &  Communications;  ISRAEL'S 
Computerworld  Israel,  PC  World  Israel;  ITALY’S  Computerworld  Italia, 
Lotus  Magazine,  Macworld  Italia,  Networking  Italia.  PC  World  Italia; 
JAPAN'S  Computerworld  Japan,  Macworld  Japan,  SunWorld  Japan; 
KENYA'S  East  African  Computer  News;  KOREA’S  Computerworld 
Korea.  Macworld  Korea.  PC  World  Korea;  MEXICO'S  Compu  Edicion, 
Compu  Manufactura,  Computacion/Punto  de  Venta.  Computerworld 
Mexico.  MacWorld,  Mundo  Unix,  PC  World.  Windows;  THE 
NETHERLANDS  Computer!  Totaal,  LAN  Magazine,  MacWorld; 
Magazine.  NEW  ZEALAND'S  Computer  Listings.  Computerworld  New 
Zealand.  New  Zealand  PC  World;  NIGERIA'S  PC  World  Africa; 
NORWAY’S  Computerworld  Norge,  C/World,  Lotusworld  Norge. 
Macworld  Norge.  Networld.  PC  World  Ekspress,  PC  World  Norge,  PC 
World's  Product  Guide.  Publish  World.  Student  Data,  Unix  World. 
Wmdowsworld;  IDG  Direct  Response;  PANAMA'S  PC  World;  PERU'S 
PC  World.  PEOPLE  S  REPUBUC  OF  CHINA  S  China  Computerworld 
PC  World  China.  Electronics  International.  IDG  HIGH  TECH  BEUING'S 
Electronics  New  Product  World.  IDG  SHENZHEN'S  Computer  News 


Digest;  PHILIPPINES  Computerworld,  PC  World;  POLANDS 
Computerworld  Poland,  PC  World/Komputer;  PORTUGAL'S  Macln; 
ROMANIA'S  Infoclub  Magazine;  RUSSIA'S  Computerworld-Moscow, 
Mir-PC,  Sety;  SLOVENIA'S  Monitor  Magazine;  SOUTH  AFRICA’S 
Computing  S.A.;  SPAINS  Amiga  World,  Autoedicion,  Computerworld 
Espana,  Communicaciones  World,  Macworld  Espana.  NeXTWORLD, 
PC  World  Espana.  Publish.  Sunworld;  SWEDEN'S  Attack, 
ComputerSweden,  Corporate  Computing,  Lokala  Natverk/LAN, 
Lotus  World,  MAC&PC,  Macworld.  Mikrodatorn,  PC  World, 
Publishing  &  Design  (CAP),  Datalngenjoren,  Maxi  Data,  Windows 
World;  SWITZERLAND'S  Computerworld  Schweiz,  Macworld  Schweiz, 
PC  &  Workstation;  TAIWAN'S  Computerworld  Taiwan,  Global 
Computer  Express.  PC  World  Taiwan;  THAILAND'S  Thai 
Computerworld;  TURKEYS  Computerworld  Monitor.  Macworld 
Turkiye.  PC  World  Turkiye.  UNITED  KINGDOMS  Lotus  Magazine, 
Macworld,  Sunworld;  UNITED  STATES'  AmigaWorld,  Cable  in  the 
Classroom,  CD  Review,  CIO  Computerworld.  Desktop  Video  World. 
DOS  Resource  Guide.  Electronic  News.  Federal  Computer  Week, 
Federal  Integrator.  GamePro,  inCider/A+,  IDG  Books,  Infoworid, 
Infoworid  Direct,  Laser  Event,  Macworld.  Multimedia  World.  Network 
World,  NeXTWORLD,  PC  Games.  PC  Letter,  PC  World,  Publish. 
SunWorld.  SWATPro,  Video  Event,  Video  Toaster  World; 
VENEZUELA'S  Computerworld  Venezeuia.  MicroComputerworld 
Venezuela;  VIETNAM'S  PC  World  Vietnam 


1 

Access  Media  70-71,  73,  75,  77 

Ingres  58-59 

Andersen  Consulting  68/69 

Knowledgeware  25 

Apple  Computer  26-27 

Lotus  Development  Corp. 

Axil  Workstations  21 

42-43,  82 

Bachman  68 

Madge  Networks  24 

Banyan  48 

Micro  Focus  11 

Borland  International  41 

Motorola/Codex  30-31 

Compaq  Computer  Corp. 

NCR  99 

18-19,  C4 

Novell  34-35 

Computer  Associates  5 

Oracle  Corp.  7,  9 

CW  Circulation  66-67 

Powersoft  46 

CW  Recruitment  15,  24,  53,  65 

Pro-Cubed  Corp.  37 

Dell  36 

Sapien  29 

Digital  Equipment  Corp. 

SAS  Institute  17,  44 

62-63,  78-79 

Software  2000  10 

EMC  Corp.  54 

Sybase,  Inc.  13 

Encore  Computer  Corp.  15 

Syncsort  3 

Hayes  Microcomputer  38 

Synoptics  52-53 

IBM  22-23,50-51,64-65 

Unisys  56 

IBM  Personal  Software  Products 

WordPerfect  32/33 

80 

World  Expo  54 

Information  Builders  60 

This  index  is  provided  as  an  additional  service. 

The  publisher  does  not  assume  any  liability  for  errors  or  omissions. 

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COMPUTERWORLD 

The  Newspaper  of  IS 

HO.  Box  2043,  Marion,  Ohio  43305 


94  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Editorial  Index 


Companies  in  this  issue 


Page  number  re  fers  to  page  on  which  sto  ry  begins 


4th  Dimension . 39 

Acius,  Inc . 39 

Advo,Inc . 14 

Aetna  Life  &  Casualty  Co . 1 

Air  Products  and  Chemicals,  Inc . 4,39 

American  Airlines . 76 

American  Bankers  Association . 4 

American  Express  Co . 97 

AMR  Corp . 76 

Andersen  Consulting . 6 

Apple  Computer,  Inc .  1,14,16,20,39,97 

Appleton  Papers,  Inc . 39 

Arthur  D.  Little,  Inc . 1 

AST  Research,  Inc . 15,97 

AT&T . 1 

AT&T  Bell  Labs . 69 

Auspex  Systems,  Inc . 47 

Bankers  Trust  Co . 1 

Banyan  Systems,  Inc . 6,55 

BellSouth  Telecommunications,  Inc . 6 

Bizmart,  Inc . 97 

Blockbuster  Entertainment,  Inc . 69 

Blue  Sky  Software  Corp . 65 

Boole  &  Babbage,  Inc . 16 

Borland  International,  Inc . 8,20,65 

BSG  Consulting,  Inc . 1 

Cadre  Technologies,  Inc . 61 

Canada  Mortgage  and  Housing  Corp . 24 

Canadian  National  Railways . 16 

Casio,  Inc . 14 

Catapult  Software . 90 

Centers  for  Disease  Control  and 

Prevention . 12 

Chase  Manhattan  Bank  NA . 16 

Chemical  BankingCorp . 76 

Chicago  Board  of  Trade . 61 

Chicago  Mercantile  Exchange . 61 

Chips  and  Technologies,  Inc . 14 

Chrysler  Corp . 20 

Cipher  Systems,  Inc . 49 

CogneticsCorp . 28 

Compagnie  des  Machines  Bull . 98 

Compaq  Computer  Corp . 55,97 

CompUSA . 90 

Computer  City . 90 

Computer  Information  Enterprises . 49 

Computer  Intelligence/Infocorp . 97 

Computer  Sciences  Corp . 16 

Computerland,  Inc . 97 

Comshare,  Inc . 55 

Consolidated  Rail  Corp . 49 

Coral  Systems,  Inc . 16 

Corporate  Software,  Inc . 90 

Creative  Labs,  Inc . 40 

Creative  Technology  Ltd . 16 

CSC  Index,  Inc . 84 

Cyrix  Corp . 16 

Dana  Corp . 84 

Datapro  Information  Services  Group . 55 

Dataquest,  Inc . 55 

DataRend,  Inc . 49 

Dazzling  Pen . 1 

Dean  Witter  Reynolds . 1 ,69 

Dell  Computer  Corp . 97 

Deloitte  &  Touche . 61 

Digital  Communications  Associates,  Inc..  53 
Digital  Equipment  Corp. ..  6,8,16,20,40,61,98 
Dun&  Bradstreet  Software . 47 


E 


Egghead  Discount  Software . 90 

Eicon  Technology  Corp . 53 

Electronic  Data  Systems  Corp . 6 

Electronic  Frontier  Foundation . 28 


EO,  Inc . 1 

Ernst  &  Young  Center . 1 

Fairfield  Software,  Inc . 39 

Federal  Express  Corp . 6 

Fifth  Generation  Systems,  Inc . 40 

FileNet  Corp . 55 

Fireworks  Partners . 97 

FirstLine  Trust . 74 

First  National  Bank  of  Chicago . 14 

Fischer  International  Systems  Corp . 49 

Ford  Motor  Co . 69 

Forrester  Research,  Inc .  37,57,76 

Frame  Technology  Corp . 8 

FutureSoft  Engineering . 15 


G 


Galileo  International . 14 

Garban  Ltd . 2 

Gartner  Group,  Inc . 2,4,6,20,24 

Geico  Insurance . 1 

General  Signal  Corp . 28 

Geo  Works,  Inc . 14 

Go  Corp . 1 

Gradient  Technologies,  Inc . 4 

Grid  Systems  Corp . 1,14,97 


H 


Hewlett-Packard  Co . 4,6,20,45,61,97 

Highland  Software . 4 

Hitachi  Data  Systems  Corp . 4 

Holland  America  Line,  Inc . 8 

Honeywell,  Inc . 2 

HyperDesk  Corp . 61 


IBM . 4,6,12,15,16,20,24, 

. 39,45,49,55,61,97,98 

IBM  PC  Co . 16 

IDC/Advante  Technology . 55 

Incotel,  Inc . 53 

Indigo  Software  Corp . 4 

Information  Resources,  Inc . 57 

Informix  Software,  Inc . 57 

Insignia  Solutions,  Inc . 45 

Intel  Corp .  6,8,15,20,28,45,47,49 

International  Data  Corp .  8,20,40,69,72 

International  Micronet  Systems . 55 

International  Communications 

Association  User  Group . 2 

ITOM  International  Co . 4 

ITT  Hartford  Insurance  Group . 1 


JC  Penney  Co . 1 

Jockey  International,  Inc . 1 


JC  Penney  Co . 1 

Jockey  International,  Inc . 1 


K 


Kaleida  Labs,  Inc . 16 

Kalpana,  Inc . 6 

Karten  Associates . 69 

KnowledgeWare,  Inc . 61 


Kokusai  Denshin  Denwa  Co. 
Korea  Telecom . 


Landmark  Systems  Corp . 39 

Legent  Corp . 4,39,97 

Lockheed  Missiles  and  Space  Co . 14 

LithoniaLightingCorp . 12 

Lotus  Development  Corp. ..  1,6,8,15,55,49,98 

LTV  Steel  Co . 84 


M 


Machine  Independent  Software  Corp . 45 

Manufacturers  Hanover  Trust  Co . 69 

MarcamCorp . 16 

Massachusetts  Bay  Transportation 

Authority . 69 

Maxtor  Corp . 6 

McDataCorp . 6 


MCI  Communications  Corp . 2 

Medtronic  Corp . 84 

Mellon  Bank  Corp . 4 

Merrill  Lynch  &  Co . 61 

Meta  Group,  Inc . 97 

Microcomputer  Managers 

Association . 69,72 

Microsoft  Corp . 1,6,8,10,12,14,16,28, 

. 39,40,45,49,53,55,61,65,76,98 

Mile- High  Information  Sendees,  Inc . 20 

Mips  Technologies,  Inc . 8 

Mitsubishi  Electric  Corp . 16 

Mozart  Systems  Corp . 6 


N 


National  DataGuard  Technologies,  Inc . 97 

National  Westminster  Bank . 1 

NationsBank  Corp . 76 

NCR  Corp . 20,55 

NEC  Technologies,  Inc . 6 

New  York  Mercantile  Exchange . 61 

Next,  Inc . 20,98 

Nike,  Inc . 69 

Nolan,  Norton  &  Co . 69 

Northeastern  University . 76 

Novell,  Inc . 6,12,14,45,49, 

. 53,55,57,61,97 

NynexCorp . 57 


0 


Object  Design,  Inc . 61 

Object  Management  Group . 20,98 

Objectivity,  Inc . 61 

Ontos.Inc . 61 

Open  Software  Foundation . 20 

Oracle  Corp .  4,39,57,65 

v|p®' ' Hpj 

Pacific  Gas  Transmission . 55 

Pacific  Gas  &  Electric  Co . 6,55 

Pacific  Telecom,  Inc . 69 

PaineWebber,  Inc . 2 

Payless  Drugstores . 49,52 

Pennsylvania  State  LIniversity . 76 

PeopleSoft,  Inc . 47 

Personal  Computer  Memory  Card 

International  Association . 14 

Phoenix  Technologies  Ltd . 1 

Pilot  Software,  Inc . 55 

Powersoft  Corp . 4,55 

Price  Club . 97 

Primavera  Systems,  Inc . 40 

Prodigy  Services  Co . 28 

Project  Technology,  Inc . 61 

Prudential  Bank  &  Trust  Co . 39 

Psicor,  Inc . 1 

Raima  Corp . 61 

Recognition  Equipment,  Inc . 55 

Renault . 98 

Ross  Systems,  Inc . 16 


S 


Sabre  Technology  Group . 76 

Saint  Agues  Medical  Center . 85 

Santa  Fe  Pacific  Corp . 16 

Seagate  Technology . 6 

Sequent  Computer  Systems,  Inc . 57 

Serius  Corp . 6 

Shell  Western  E&P,  Inc . 14 

Silicon  Graphics,  Inc . 45 

Simple  Technologies,  Inc . 6 

Singapore  Telecom . 2 

Slate  Corp . 1 

Software  PublishingCorp . 6 

Southern  California  Gas  Co . 1 

Spiegel,  Inc . 16 

Sprint  Corp . 4,69 

Square  D  Co . 69 

St.  Johns  River  Water  Management 
District . 14 


Stac  Electronics,  Inc . 16 

Starlight  Networks . 97 

Steelcase,  Inc . 39 

SterlingSoftware,  Inc . 53 

Sun  Microsystems,  Inc . 20,45 

SunSoft . 45 

Super  Value,  Inc . 49 

Swiss  Bank  Corp . 20 

Sybase,  Inc . 55 

Symantec  Corp . 65 

System  Software  Associates,  Inc . 97 

Systems  &  Computer  Technology  Corp. ...  16 
Syzugy  Communications,  Inc . 49 


Taligent,  Inc . 20 

Tandem  Computers,  Inc . 61 

Tandy  Corp . 14,97 

Tandy-Grip  Europe . 97 

Target  Stores . 4 

Teachers  Insurance  Annuity 

Association . 47 

TechGnosis,  Inc . 98 

TeleChoice,  Inc . 2,98 

Tele-Communications,  Inc . 28 

Telstra . 2 

Texaco,  Inc . 84 

Texas  Instruments,  Inc . 1,53,61,97 

Texas  Rehabilitation  Commission . 85 

The  Burton  Group . 61 

The  CIT  Group,  Inc . 76 

The  Dai-Itchi  Kangyo  Bank  Ltd . 76 

The  Guidry  Group . 16 

The  Insight  Research  Corp . 28 

The  PC  Street  Price  Index . 97 

The  Travelers  Corp . 81 

Time  Warner,  Inc . 28 

Tivoli  Systems,  Inc . 16 

Toshiba  Corp . 6,97 

Tricord  Systems,  Inc . 47 


u 


United  Airlines . 40 

United  American  Healthcare  Corp . 14 

United  Parcel  Service,  Inc . 6,57 

United  Way . 14 

Unitel  Communications,  Inc . 2 

University  of  Florida . 20 

U.S.  Patent  and  Trademark  Office . 98 

U.S.  States  Trust  Co.v. . 76 

US  West . 28 


Versant  Object  Technology . 61 

ViewStar  Corp . 55 

Virginia  Department  of  Taxation . 81 

Visa  International,  Inc . 49 

Voice  Processing  Corp . 40 

VXM  Technologies,  Inc . 45 


w 


Wal-Mart  Stores,  Inc . 97 

Weiss  Associates . 84 

Weston  Information  Network . 14 

WordPerfect  Corp . 6,14 

WorkGroup  Technologies,  Inc . 1 

W.W.  Granger . 6 

Wyse  Technology,  Inc . 47 

Xerox  Corp . 69 


COMPUTERWORLD 


May  31,  1993  95 


Friday  Stock  Ticker 


Losers 


Percent 


Aovan "to  Logic  Research 

35.7 

DellComputer  Corp. 

-27.5 

Compression  Labs  Inc. 

22.8 

3  COMCorp.  (H) 

-27.3 

Oigual  Systems  int’lInc. 

22.2 

Group  1  Software 

-23.1 

R  aSTEROPS 

21.9 

Knowledgeware  Inc. 

-13.7 

WOTEK  (Hi 

19.7 

Sequent  Computer  Sys. 

-13.4 

COMSHASE  ?NC. 

18.4 

MathSoft 

-13.2 

CfKirGRAM  Communications 

17.6 

Iomega  Corp. 

-12.5 

CambcxCorp. 

16.0 

State  ofthe  Art 

-12.5 

Dollar 


Intel  Corp. 

6.50 

3  COM  Corp.  (H) 

-10.25 

7?lo6  Inc.  (H) 

4.25 

Dell  Computer  Corp. 

-9.00 

IBM 

4.13 

WellfleetCommunications  (H) 

-4.50 

Centigram  Communications 

3.00 

BMC  Software  Inc. 

-3.75 

Motorola  Inc.  (H) 

2.38 

Novell  Inc. 

-3.63 

System  Software  Assoc. 

2.38 

Compuware  Corp. 

-3.25 

Compression  Labs  Inc. 

2.25 

Group  1  Software 

-3.00 

ITT  Corp. 

2.13 

Sequent  Computer  Sys. 

-3.00 

Too  good  to  last? 


Valuations  are  currently  very  high  for  many  technology 
stocks.  Is  the  market  due  for  a  correction? 

Curt  Monash 

President,  Monash  Informat  ion  Services 
“Almost  every  stupidly  priced  stock  I  can  think  of  is  over¬ 
priced.  This  suggests  that  a  correction  may  well  be  coming 
up. 

“Even  the  companies  whose  fundamentals  are  bullet¬ 
proof  are  at  amazingly  high  valuations.  The  slightest  sur¬ 
prise  can  take  the  stocks  down,  like  Novell,  even  though  the 
companies  are  fundamentally  solid. 

“The  only  way  to  make  money  right  now,  other  than  the 
greater  fool  theory,  is  to  find  names  that  have  been  over¬ 
looked.  Intersolv  is  one  that  seems  low  to  me.” 

Michael  Mu  rphy 

Editor,  “California  Technology  Stock  Letter” 

“I  would  separate  technology  stocks  from  the  general  mar¬ 
ket.  You  will  probably  see  a  correction  in  the  general  market 
—  maybe  not  too  drastic  but  lasting  fairly  long — while  a  lot 
of  tech  companies  that  have  good  news  will  just  continue  to 
grow. 

“Anything  related  to  PCs  that  can  avoid  price  pressure 
will  grow.  Systems  and  disk  drives  have  suffered  from  price 
pressure,  but  networking  and  PC  component  companies 
have  avoided  the  pressure  so  far.” 

— Derek  Slater 


STOCK  TRADING  INDEX 


Exch  52-Week  Range 


May  28  Wk  Net  Wk  Per 
3  pm  Change  Change 


Exch  52-Week  Range 


May  28  WkNet  Wk  Pct 
3  pm  Change  Change 


COMMUNICATIONS  AND  NETWORK  SERVICES 

Up  1.2% 

OTC 

39.13 

9.63 

3  COM  Corp.  (H) 

27.25 

-10.25 

-27.3 

NYS 

80.25 

61.38 

American  InfoTechs Corp. 

72.13 

-0.63 

-0.9 

NYS 

62.38 

40.63 

AT&T  (H) 

61.13 

1.38 

2.3 

OTC 

3.56 

0.75 

ArtelCommunication  Corp. 

2.81 

-0.13 

-4.3 

OTC 

24.50 

10.25 

Banyan  Systems  Inc. 

16.13 

0.88 

5.7 

NYS 

56.75 

42.88 

Bell  Atlantic  Corp. 

53.88 

-0.25 

-0.5 

NYS 

57.50 

46.75 

BellSouth  Corp. 

51.88 

-0.25 

-0.5 

NYS 

6.25 

3.63 

Bolt,  Beranek  &  Newman 

5.00 

0.38 

8.1 

OTC 

18.50 

9.50 

Brooktrout  Technology 

12.00 

0.63 

5.5 

NYS 

104.50 

44.00 

Cabletron  Systems  (H) 

101.25 

1.63 

1.6 

OTC 

20.00 

3.75 

Centigram  Communications 

20.00 

3.00 

17.6 

OTC 

41.00 

17.75 

Chipcom  Corp.  (H) 

39.00 

-0.50 

-1.3 

OTC 

56.25 

21.38 

Cisco  Systems  Inc.  (H) 

53.00 

-1.00 

-1.9 

OTC 

18.75 

5.50 

Compression  Labs  Inc. 

12.13 

2.25 

22.8 

OTC 

34.50 

11.00 

CrossComm  (H) 

34.00 

0.75 

2.3 

OTC 

4.63 

0.88 

Data  Switch  Corp. 

3.13 

-0.13 

-3.8 

NYS 

22.13 

12.38 

Digital  Comm.  Assoc. 

12.88 

-0.13 

-1.0 

OTC 

12.75 

4.50 

Digital  Systems  Int’l  Inc. 

5.50 

1.00 

22.2 

OTC 

44.00 

4.25 

DSCCommunications  (H) 

43.00 

1.75 

4.2 

OTC 

9.50 

4.75 

Fibronix  Int’l  Inc. 

6.38 

-0.25 

-3.8 

OTC 

26.00 

8.75 

FilenetCorp. 

13.00 

1.50 

13.0 

OTC 

4.38 

1.50 

Gandalf  Technologies  Inc. 

3.13 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

2.06 

0.69 

Gateway  Communications 

1.13 

0.00 

0.0 

NYS 

15.13 

2.88 

General  Datacomm  Inds.  (H) 

14.50 

0.00 

0.0 

ASE 

3.75 

2.00 

Go  Video 

2.44 

0.13 

5.4 

NYS 

37.75 

30.63 

GTE  Corp. 

35.13 

-0.25 

-0.7 

NYS 

84.25 

62.50 

ITT  Corp. 

83.50 

2.13 

2.6 

OTC 

52.75 

29.88 

MCI  Com  mm  uni  cat  10  ns  Corp.  (H) 

52.00 

0.88 

1.7 

OTC 

14.25 

2.25 

Microcom  Inc.  (H) 

4.63 

-0.38 

-7.5 

OTC 

24.25 

4.75 

Netrix  Corp. 

5.25 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

19.00 

8.75 

Network  Computing  Devices 

11.00 

-0.25 

-2.2 

NYS 

15.00 

5.38 

Network  EquipmentTech. 

8.13 

1.00 

14.0 

OTC 

23.25 

8.00 

Network  General 

9.63 

0.25 

2.7 

OTC 

15.75 

8.50 

Network  Systems  Corp. 

9.38 

-0.25 

-2.6 

OTC 

71.75 

14.63 

Newbridge  Networks  Corp.  (H) 

68.00 

-0.38 

-0.5 

NYS 

46.00 

30.50 

Northern  Telecom  Ltd. 

35.38 

-1.00 

-2.7 

OTC 

35.25 

22.50 

Novell  Inc. 

27.63 

-3.63 

-11.6 

NYS 

92.50 

75.63 

NynexCorp. 

83.13 

1.63 

2.0 

OTC 

30.00 

14.50 

Octel  Communications  Corp. 

22.00 

0.50 

2.3 

OTC 

6.13 

3.38 

Penril  Data  Comm  Networks 

4.38 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

38.75 

10.25 

PictureTel  Corp. 

20.00 

-1.88 

-8.6 

OTC 

15.25 

4.63 

Proteon  Inc. 

5.50 

-0.13 

-2.2 

NYS 

31.75 

10.16 

Scientific  Atlanta  Inc.  (L) 

31.75 

-0.50 

-1.6 

NYS 

40.75 

29.69 

Southwestern  Bell  Corp.  (L) 

38.13 

0.50 

1.3 

NYS 

33.25 

21.00 

SprintCorp. 

32.50 

1.13 

3.6 

OTC 

27.00 

10.50 

Standard  Microsystems  Corp 

16.50 

-0.25 

-1.5 

OTC 

18.50 

6.88 

Stratacom  Inc. 

14.25 

1.50 

11.8 

OTC 

125.50 

27.00 

Synoptics  Communications  (H) 

119.00 

-1.13 

-0.9 

OTC 

7.13 

4.13 

TelebitCorp.  (H) 

4.13 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

9.38 

2.13 

Telematics  Int'l  Inc. 

6.75 

0.63 

10.2 

OTC 

25.50 

13.38 

US  Robotics 

23.75 

-1.00 

-4.0 

NYS 

43.00 

32.88 

U  S  West  Inc.  (L) 

43.00 

-0.13 

-0.3 

OTC 

55.50 

12.00 

WellfleetCommunications  (H) 

47.75 

-4.50 

-8.6 

OTC 

13.00 

7.00 

Xircom 

12.50 

0.25 

2.0 

PC’S  AND  WORKSTATIONS 

Up  1.8% 

OTC 

6.75 

2.50 

Advanced  Logic  Research 

4.75 

1.25 

35.7 

OTC 

65.25 

41.50 

Apple  Computer  Inc. 

56.75 

-0.75 

-1.3 

OTC 

24.25 

11.25 

AST  Research  Inc. 

16.50 

1.00 

6.5 

NYS 

12.50 

3.50 

Commodore  Int’l 

3.88 

-0.25 

-6.1 

NYS 

58.50 

23.13 

Compaq  Computer  Corp. 

57.63 

0.38 

0.7 

OTC 

49.88 

15.00 

Dell  Computer  Corp. 

23.75 

-9.00 

-27.5 

NYS 

85.00 

50.25 

Hewlett  Packard  Co. 

83.50 

-1.00 

-1.2 

NYS 

36.50 

16.13 

Silicon  Graphics  (H) 

36.00 

0.25 

0.7 

OTC 

41.00 

22.50 

Sun  Microsystems  Inc. 

30.13 

0.25 

0.8 

NYS 

32.13 

22.25 

TandyCorp. 

31.13 

1.63 

5.5 

OTC 

11.00 

2.75 

Zeos  International  Ltd. 

4.25 

0.25 

6.3 

LARGE  SYSTEMS 

Off  0.1% 

ASE 

18.38 

4.63 

AmdahlCorp. 

5.50 

0.25 

4.8 

NYS 

9.75 

4.25 

Convex  Computer 

6.63 

0.25 

3.9 

OTC 

6.13 

1.88 

Cray  Computer 

2.75 

-0.13 

-4.3 

NYS 

32.88 

19.00 

Cray  Research  Inc. 

29.13 

0.13 

0.4 

NYS 

13.88 

7.13 

DataGeneralCorp. 

11.38 

0.88 

8.3 

NYS 

49.25 

30.38 

Digital  EquipmentCorp. 

44.00 

-2.38 

-5.1 

NYS 

38.63 

26.75 

Harris  Corp. 

35.50 

0.00 

0.0 

NYS 

100.38 

45.88 

IBM 

52.88 

4.13 

8.5 

OTC 

22.00 

5.50 

Kendall  Square  Research 

16.50 

1.75 

11.9 

NYS 

127.50 

83.00 

Matsushita  Electronics 

119.25 

1.75 

1.5 

OTC 

23.75 

8.25 

NetFrame 

16.25 

-1.00 

-5.8 

OTC 

15.50 

9.25 

Parallan  Computer 

14.25 

-0.25 

-1.7 

OTC 

18.75 

6.00 

Pyramid  Technology  (H) 

18.38 

0.50 

2.8 

OTC 

24.00 

12.13 

Sequent  Computer  Sys. 

19.38 

-3.00 

-13.4 

OTC 

14.50 

1.38 

Sequoia  Systems  Inc. 

2.00 

-0.13 

-5.9 

NYS 

48.38 

29.50 

Stratus  Computer  Inc. 

34.38 

-1.63 

-4.5 

NYS 

16.88 

9.88 

Tandem  Computers  Inc. 

12.88 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

19.00 

10.63 

TriCord  Systems 

16.50 

-0.25 

-1.5 

NYS 

13.88 

7.75 

Unisys  Corp. 

11.38 

-0.13 

-1.1 

SOFTWARE 

Up  0.4% 

OTC 

66.25 

25.25 

Adobe  Systems  Inc. 

66.25 

0.50 

0.8 

OTC 

21.00 

10.25 

Aldus  Corp. 

15.75 

0.13 

0.8 

OTC 

14.25 

5.50 

American  Software  Inc. 

8.00 

1.00 

14.3 

OTC 

28.13 

9.75 

Ask  Computer  Systems 

11.50 

-0.50 

-4.2 

OTC 

56.50 

32.75 

Autodesk  Inc. 

49.50 

-2.25 

-4.3 

OTC 

13.00 

2.50 

Bachman  Info.  Systems 

3.13 

0.38 

13.6 

OTC 

43.00 

32.00 

BGS  Systems  Inc.  (L) 

32.75 

-1.00 

-3.0 

OTC 

84.13 

37.25 

BMC  Software  Inc. 

49.75 

-3.75 

-7.0 

OTC 

28.25 

17.00 

Boole  &  Babbage 

23.25 

2.00 

9.4 

OTC 

76.50 

17.50 

Borland  Int’l  Inc.  (H) 

25.25 

-0.63 

-2.4 

OTC 

6.13 

3.00 

CE  Software 

3.25 

-0.25 

-7.1 

ASE 

30.25 

6.25 

CheyenneSoftware  Inc.  (H) 

27.25 

-1.63 

-5.6 

OTC 

19.50 

8.25 

ChipSoft 

12.00 

0.75 

6.7 

OTC 

9.63 

5.63 

Cognos  Inc. 

6.50 

0.00 

0.0 

NYS 

31.38 

10.88 

Computer  Associates  (H) 

28.13 

-1.25 

-4.3 

NYS 

12.38 

2.75 

Computervision  Corp. 

4.88 

0.13 

2.6 

OTC 

34.25 

19.25 

Compuware  Corp. 

23.75 

-3.25 

-12.0 

OTC 

14.75 

5.75 

Comshare  Inc. 

7.25 

1.13 

18.4 

OTC 

17.25 

10.75 

CorelCorp. 

15.25 

0.25 

1.7 

OTC 

28.00 

5.25 

Easel  Corp.  (L) 

6.38 

0.63 

10.9 

OTC 

25.25 

12.00 

4th  Dimension 

20.25 

0.50 

2.5 

OTC 

19.50 

6.00 

Frame  Technology 

7.00 

-0.38 

-5.1 

OTC 

20.75 

10.00 

Group  1  Software 

10.00 

-3.00 

-23.1 

OTC 

35.25 

19.75 

Gupta 

19.75 

1.75 

9.7 

OTC 

8.75 

3.50 

Hogan  Systems  Inc. 

7.88 

0.13 

1.6 

OTC 

25.75 

11.25 

IMRS 

18.50 

0.50 

2.8 

OTC 

34.75 

18.50 

Information  Resources 

34.63 

0.63 

1.8 

OTC 

49.75 

12.13 

Informix  Corp.  (H) 

43.13 

-2.38 

-5.2 

OTC 

16.75 

9.50 

Intergraph  Corp. 

9.88 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

13.63 

6.88 

Interleaf  Inc. 

9.13 

0.25 

2.8 

OTC 

18.00 

6.75 

Intersolv  Inc. 

7.25 

-0.50 

-6.5 

OTC 

16.00 

7.75 

Knowledgeware  Inc. 

10.25 

-1.63 

-13.7 

OTC 

54.75 

26.00 

LegentCorp. 

29.00 

0.75 

2.7 

OTC 

36.75 

14.75 

Lotus  Development  (H) 

34.50 

0.25 

0.7 

OTC 

23.00 

7.75 

MathSoft 

8.25 

-1.25 

-13.2 

OTC 

23.25 

5.25 

McAfee  Associates 

6.75 

-0.25 

-3.6 

OTC 

11.63 

1.88 

Meca  Software 

10.25 

-0.75 

-6.8 

OTC 

15.00 

5.25 

Mentor  Graphics 

11.25 

0.88 

8.4 

OTC 

46.00 

27.25 

Micro  Focus 

34.88 

-0.50 

-1.4 

OTC 

19.00 

4.38 

Micrografx  Inc. 

6.38 

0.63 

10.9 

OTC 

95.25 

65.50 

MicrosoftCorp.  (H) 

92.25 

-0.25 

-0.3 

OTC 

43.63 

14.00 

Oracle  Corp.  (H) 

42.00 

0.13 

0.3 

OTC 

63.75 

25.25 

ParametricTechnology  (H) 

33.00 

0.25 

0.8 

OTC 

40.50 

22.50 

Peoplesoft 

32.75 

1.50 

4.8 

OTC 

8.13 

3.50 

Phoenix  Technologies 

5.00 

0.38 

8.1 

OTC 

40.00 

25.38 

Powersoft 

27.00 

-1.50 

-5.3 

OTC 

41.50 

17.00 

Platinum  Software 

27.50 

1.50 

5.8 

OTC 

25.00 

11.25 

Platinum  Technology 

15.00 

0.25 

1.7 

OTC 

61.50 

29.00 

Progress  Software  Corp. 

39.00 

0.75 

2.0 

OTC 

15.50 

2.56 

Quarterdeck  Office  Sys.  (L) 

3.31 

0.25 

8.2 

OTC 

24.50 

11.75 

Rainbow  Technologies  Inc. 

22.25 

-1.75 

-7.3 

OTC 

15.75 

4.00 

Rasterops 

8.69 

1.56 

21.9 

OTC 

15.25 

3.63 

Ross  Systems 

11.50 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

27.25 

8.50 

Sapiens  Intl.  Corp.  N.V. 

20.50 

-2.50 

-10.9 

OTC 

15.00 

6.75 

Software  Publishing  Corp. 

7.50 

-0.13 

-1.6 

OTC 

11.00 

2.00 

Software  Toolworks  Inc.  (H) 

10.88 

0.13 

1.2 

OTC 

4.50 

0.75 

Spinnaker  Software 

1.31 

-0.13 

-8.7 

OTC 

12.75 

3.25 

State  of  the  Art 

8.75 

-1.25 

-12.5 

NYS 

24.63 

13.75 

Sterling  Software  Inc. 

19.50 

0.38 

2.0 

OTC 

19.75 

8.00 

Struct.  Dynamics  Research  (H) 

19.63 

0.63 

3.3 

OTC 

69.25 

21.00 

Sybase  Inc. 

69.25 

-1.88 

-2.6 

OTC 

44.25 

5.88 

Symantec  Corp. 

16.75 

0.25 

1.5 

NYS 

12.50 

5.25 

Systems  Center  Inc. 

10.50 

0.50 

5.0 

OTC 

25.50 

10.00 

System  Software  Assoc. 

18.63 

2.38 

14.6 

OTC 

7.00 

2.50 

TrinzicCorp. 

3.63 

0.25 

7.4 

OTC 

22.75 

9.13 

ViewLogicSystems 

19.75 

1.50 

8.2 

OTC 

23.50 

6.75 

Walker  Interactive  Systems 

7.25 

-0.25 

-3.3 

OTC 

3.19 

1.38 

Wordstar 

1.75 

-0.19 

-9.7 

SEMICONDUCTORS 

Up  3.8% 

NYS 

32.88 

7.38 

Advanced  Micro  Devices 

28.13 

-0.50 

-1.7 

NYS 

21.38 

9.00 

Analog  Devices  Inc. 

20.00 

1.00 

5.3 

OTC 

23.88 

7.63 

AtmelCorp.  (H) 

23.25 

-0.38 

-1.6 

OTC 

8.75 

2.75 

Chips  and  Technologies 

3.88 

0.38 

10.7 

OTC 

39.75 

13.00 

CirrusLogic 

17.13 

0.13 

0.7 

NYS 

16.88 

7.38 

Cypress  Semiconductor  Corp(H) 

13.38 

0.63 

4.9 

NYS 

16.13 

8.00 

Dallas  Semiconductor 

15.00 

0.50 

3.4 

OTC 

121.25 

47.75 

Intel  Corp. 

110.50 

6.50 

6.3 

NYS 

14.13 

4.88 

LSI  Logic  Corp. 

13.00 

0.50 

4.0 

OTC 

33.25 

13.75 

Lattice  Semiconductor 

29.25 

-0.75 

-2.5 

NYS 

29.75 

13.13 

Micron  Technology  (H) 

29.75 

1.50 

5.3 

NYS 

80.63 

37.13 

Motorola  Inc.  (H) 

80.63 

2.38 

3.0 

NYS 

15.00 

8.50 

National  Semiconductor 

14.50 

0.13 

0.9 

OTC 

18.00 

6.50 

Sierra  Semiconductor 

8.50 

0.25 

3.0 

OTC 

42.25 

22.25 

SynOpsys  (H) 

40.13 

0.13 

0.3 

NYS 

66.00 

32.25 

T exas  Instruments  (H) 

64.75 

-0.13 

-0.2 

OTC 

8.88 

6.00 

VLSI  Technology 

7.88 

0.38 

5.0 

OTC 

9.13 

2.13 

Weitek(H) 

9.13 

1.50 

19.7 

ASE 

9.63 

4.13 

Western  Digital  Corp. 

5.00 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

38.50 

14.50 

XlLINX  (H) 

36.00 

-0.75 

-2.0 

OTC 

31.25 

12.66 

Zilog  Inc.  (H) 

31.25 

4.25 

15.7 

PERIPHERALS  AND  SUBSYSTEMS 

Off  2.6% 

OTC 

38.75 

11.75 

American  Power  Conversion  (H) 

35.50 

-1.75 

-4.7 

OTC 

20.16 

13.84 

Banctec  Inc. 

18.50 

0.50 

2.8 

OTC 

18.00 

6.25 

CambexCorp. 

7.25 

1.00 

16.0 

ASE 

18.38 

6.50 

Cog  nitron  ics  Corp. 

7.13 

0.00 

0.0 

NYS 

25.50 

11.88 

Conner  Peripherals 

11.88 

-1.63 

-12.0 

OTC 

38.50 

10.75 

CreativeTechnologies  Inc. 

31.75 

-2.50 

-7.3 

OTC 

30.75 

14.25 

Data  Race  Inc. 

22.00 

-2.63 

-10.7 

ASE 

17.00 

4.75 

Dataram  Corp. 

10.38 

0.75 

7.8 

NYS 

37.00 

10.09 

EMC  Corp.  (H) 

34.00 

-0.25 

-0.7 

OTC 

10.50 

5.38 

EmulexCorp. 

7.00 

-0.25 

-3.4 

OTC 

19.00 

13.25 

Evans  &  Sutherland 

16.75 

-0.50 

-2.9 

OTC 

33.00 

12.00 

Exabyte 

13.00 

0.25 

2.0 

OTC 

26.00 

7.09 

Intelligent  Info.  Systems 

21.25 

0.50 

2.4 

OTC 

8.88 

3.88 

Iomega  Corp. 

4.38 

-0.63 

-12.5 

OTC 

34.75 

5.75 

IPL  Systems  Inc.  (H) 

7.50 

-0.75 

-9.1 

OTC 

24.00 

10.75 

Komag  Inc. 

19.00 

-2.25 

-10.6 

OTC 

19.63 

5.88 

Maxtor  Corp. 

7.13 

-0.63 

-8.1 

OTC 

12.63 

7.13 

Micropolis  Corp.  (H) 

7.25 

-0.25 

-3.3 

NYS 

116.00 

93.75 

3MCorp 

113.13 

-1.75 

-1.5 

OTC 

7.75 

4.00 

Printronix  Inc. 

6.88 

0.13 

1.9 

NYS 

17.25 

6.88 

QMS  Inc. 

14.75 

-1.00 

-6.3 

OTC 

17.88 

11.63 

Quantum  Corp. 

12.50 

-1.00 

-7.4 

OTC 

12.75 

3.38 

Radius  Inc. 

3.50 

-0.25 

-6.7 

NYS 

16.50 

7.50 

Recognition  Equipment  (H) 

15.25 

0.25 

1.7 

OTC 

13.88 

4.50 

Rexon  Inc. 

5.00 

0.50 

11.1 

OTC 

22.38 

12.00 

SeagateTechnology 

16.25 

-0.75 

-4.4 

NYS 

45.00 

18.00 

Storage  Technology  (H) 

38.63 

-1.63 

-4.0 

NYS 

27.88 

16.88 

Tektronix  Inc. 

22.25 

-2.00 

-8.2 

NYS 

88.88 

66.75 

Xerox  Corp. 

75.75 

2.00 

2.7 

SERVICES 

Up  1.1% 

OTC 

23.75 

14.25 

American  Mgmt.  Systems 

18.88 

0.00 

0.0 

NYS 

4.75 

2.75 

Anacomp  Inc.  (L) 

3.00 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

35.75 

16.25 

Analysts  Int’l 

26.75 

-0.50 

•1.8 

NYS 

56.13 

38.75 

Auto  Data  Processing 

48.63 

-1.00 

-2.0 

NYS 

17.25 

11.22 

Ceridian  Corp. 

14.75 

-0.13 

-0.8 

NYS 

17.38 

13.13 

Comdisco  Inc. 

14.38 

0.13 

0.9 

OTC 

8.25 

4.50 

Computer  Horizons 

7.50 

0.25 

3.4 

NYS 

80.50 

57.00 

Computer  Sciences 

75.13 

1.13 

1.5 

NYS 

9.25 

6.50 

Computer  Task  Group 

7.13 

0.25 

3.6 

NYS 

40.50 

22.00 

CompUSA  Inc. 

33.38 

0.88 

2.7 

OTC 

14.75 

6.00 

Corporate  Software 

12.25 

0.00 

0.0 

OTC 

22.50 

7.38 

Egghead  Discount  Software 

8.50 

-0.50 

-5.6 

NYS 

35.88 

25.25 

General  Motors  E  (EDS) 

31.75 

1.25 

4.1 

OTC 

25.50 

9.25 

Inacom  Corp. 

17.75 

-0.13 

-0.7 

OTC 

15.38 

6.25 

Intelligent  Electronics 

13.75 

-0.25 

-1.8 

OTC 

13.00 

6.63 

Merisel 

12.50 

0.13 

1.0 

OTC 

16.00 

5.75 

MicroAge  Inc.  (H) 

15.75 

1.75 

12.5 

OTC 

43.00 

21.75 

Paychex 

40.25 

1.00 

2.5 

NYS 

87.25 

32.88 

Policy  Management  Sys.  (L) 

34.88 

-2.88 

-7.6 

NYS 

38.00 

16.81 

Reynolds  and  Reynolds 

37.13 

0.63 

1.7 

OTC 

32.75 

22.00 

SEI  Corp. 

32.25 

0.50 

1.6 

OTC 

24.38 

16.88 

Shared  Medical  Systems 

22.13 

1.00 

4.7 

OTC 

13.75 

5.75 

SHLSystemhouse 

11.88 

0.50 

4.4 

OTC 

29.25 

18.25 

Software  Spectrum  Inc. 

27.00 

1.75 

6.9 

OTC 

32.25 

20.75 

Sungard  Data  Systems  (L) 

29.38 

0.00 

0.0 

NYS 

4.38 

1.13 

Ultimate  Corp. 

4.00 

-0.13 

-3.0 

KEY:  (H)  =  New  annual  high  reached  in  period  (L)  =  New  annual  low  reached  in  period 
Note:  Southwestern  Bell  Corp  had  a  2-for-1  split  on  5/25/93. 

Copyright  Nordby  International,  Inc.  Louisville,  CO 

This  information  is  based  on  sources  believed  to  be  reliable,  and  while  extensive  efforts  are  made  to  assure  its  accuracy,  no  guarantees  can  be  made.  Nordby 
International  and  Computer  world  assume  no  liability  for  any  inaccuracies.  For  phone  numbers,  addresses,  or  any  additional  financial  information  on  any  of 
the  above  companies  call  Nordby  International  at  (303)  666-5903. 


D17C 


provided  tn 
Brvanl.CW 
year;  Centn 
toll  free  (8o 


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96  Computerworld  May  31,  1993 


Computer  Industry 


Dell  cites  notebooks  for  profit  drop 


Novell  grows 

Novell,  Inc.  fiscal  second- 
quarter  net  income  jumped 
31%to  $80  million,  buoyed  by 
initial  sales  of  NetWare  4.0, 
upgrade  products  and  rising 
royalty  revenue.  Revenue  in 
the  quarter  leaped  25%  to 
$225  million,  the  Provo, 

Utah,  firm  said.  For  the  first 
half,  Novell  earned  $151  mil¬ 
lion  on  sales  of  $430  million, 
an  increase  of  33%  and  26%, 
respectively,  from  the  same 
period  last  year. 

SSA  results  up 

Financial  application  soft¬ 
ware  developer  System 
Software  Associates,  Inc. 
(SSA)  posted  fiscal  second- 
quarter  profits  of  $6  million, 
a  20%  increase  from  the 
year-earlier  period.  Reve¬ 
nue  in  the  period  grew  27% 
to  $62.9  million,  the  Chicago- 
based  company  said.  For  the 
first  half,  the  company 
earned  $6.9  million,  on  reve¬ 
nue  of  $1 1 1.5  million. 

Executive  shuffle 

IBM  has  hired  Abby  Kohn- 
stamm  as  its  first  vice  presi¬ 
dent  of  corporate  market¬ 
ing.  Kohnstamm  joins  IBM 
from  American  Express 
Co.  where  she  was  a  senior 
vice  president.  Meanwhile, 
Lucie  J.  Fjeldstad,  IBM’s 
general  manager  of  multi- 
media,  will  retire  today  after 
25  years  of  service. 

SHORTTAKES  Legent  Corp. 

in  Vienna,  Va.,  has  acquired 
Cleveland-based  National 
DataGuard  Technologies, 
Inc.  and  its  Lifeguard  auto¬ 
mated  disaster  recove ry 
software  for  corporate  data 
centers _ Hewlett-Pack¬ 

ard  Co.  has  agreed  to  ac¬ 
quire  Metrix  Network  Sys¬ 
tems,  Inc.,  a  Nashua,  N.H., 
network  monitoring  and 
analysis  vendor. . . .  Star¬ 
light  Networks,  a  develop¬ 
er  of  multimedia  network 
software  management,  has 
received  $5  million  in  third- 
round  venture  financing 
from  a  group  of  European 
investors. 


By  Kim  S.  Nash 

AUSTIN,  TEXAS 


■  Dell  Computer  Corp.  blamed 
a  weak  notebook  computer 
line  last  week  for  most  of  a 
49%  profit  plunge  in  its  fiscal 
firstquarter.  But  a  lingering  PC 
price  war  —  although  not  as 
fierce  as  it  was  at  this  time  last 
year  —  has  taken  a  bite  out  of 
Dell’s  earnings  as  well,  ana¬ 
lysts  said. 

Make  no  mistake:  The  9-year- 
old  company  is  not  about  to 
wither,  analysts  agreed,  noting 
that  Dell  set  record  sales  for  the 
quarter  ended  May  2  of  $672.4 
million,  up  84%  over  the  same 
period  ayear  ago  (see  chart). 

However,  the  lack  of  a  com¬ 
petitive  notebook  means  Dell 
has  missed  out  on  a  fast-rising 
demand  for  portable  comput¬ 
ers  from  both  home  and  busi¬ 
ness  buyers  during  the  past 
several  months,  said  Matt  Cain, 
a  program  director  at  Meta 
Group,  Inc.  in  Stamford,  Conn. 
“Dell’s  portables  are  under¬ 
powered  and  pretty  expensive” 
compared  with  offerings  from 
rivals,  Cain  said. 

Delays  annoy  users 

Moreover,  Dell  has  disappoint¬ 
ed  would-be  customers  with 
continued  delays  in  getting  an 
1486-based  notebook  into  the 
multiple  distribution  channels 
the  company  uses.  Meanwhile, 
Compaq  Computer  Corp.,  To¬ 
shiba  Corp.  and  Texas  Instru¬ 


ments,  Inc.,  among  others,  are 
preparing  486-based  laptops 
for  imminent  release  [CW,  May 
24], 

As  Cain  put  it:  “A  situation 
like  that  means  you’re  going  to 
get  hurt.” 

Chairman  and  Chief  Execu¬ 
tive  Officer  Michael  Dell 
agreed.  Despite  the  recent  hir- 
ingof  John  Medica,  a  key  figure 
from  Apple  Computer, 

Inc.’s  PowerBook 
group,  profits  for  the 
next  two  quarters  will 
take  a  hit  as  Dell 
pauses  to  rethink  its 
laptop  strategy,  Dell 
said  in  a  prepared 
statement. 

The  company  has 
tried  to  escape  painful 
price  skirmishes  on 
other  PC  fronts  by  en¬ 
listing  warehouse  out¬ 
lets  such  as  Wal-Mart 
Stores,  Inc.  and  Price 
Club.  “The  big  guys” 
such  as  IBM  and  Com¬ 
paq  are  not  moving 
products  through  such 
outlets  right  now,  so 
Dell  may  have  some 
breathing  room,  said 
Van  Baker,  service  di¬ 
rector  of  distribution  channel 
strategies  at  Computer  Intelli- 
gence/Infocorp  in  Santa  Clara, 
Calif. 

“Dell  is  trying  to  re-create 
the  scene  when  they  dominated 
superstores  before  seeingcom- 
petitors  come  in,”  Baker  ex¬ 
plained.  He  said  Dell  sales  were 


squeezed  after  IBM,  Compaq 
and  Apple  decided  to  sell  PC 
lines  through  computer  super¬ 
stores,  such  as  Bizmart,  Inc. 
and  Computerland,  Inc. 

Falling  share 

For  example,  during  the  first 
three  months  of  this  year,  Dell’s 
share  in  terms  of  PC  units  sold 
at  all  levels  via  the  superstore 


channel  has  steadily  dropped 
from  18.9%  in  January  to  16.6% 
in  February  to  13.8%  in  March, 
accordingto  Baker. 

“Now  they  want  to  find  chan¬ 
nels  where  they  don’t  yet  have 
those  competitors  to  deal 
with,”  he  said. 

Yet,  observers  see  no  end  to 


the  PC  wars,  saying  that  prices 
will  continue  to  fall.  For  exam¬ 
ple,  buyers  can  get  various  con¬ 
figurations  of  386-  and  486- 
based  PCs  for  20%  to  30%  less 
than  they  could  at  this  time  in 
1992,  according  to  John  Mur¬ 
phy,  editor  and  publisher  of 
“The  PC  Street  Price  Index” 
newsletter  in  Gibbsboro,  N.  J. 

“As  long  as  there  are  more 
than  10  vendors  making 
PCs  and  three  vendors 
making  chips,  the  wars 
will  go  on  and  on  and 
on,”  Murphy  said. 

The  market  has  seen 
little  pricing  stability, 
with  PC  makers  forced 
to  slash  price  tags  at 
least  every  three 
months  to  stay  on  par, 
he  added. 

However,  the  ferocity 
of  the  battle  has  begun 
to  ebb,  according  to 
Cain.  “You  don’t  see  the 
angry  back-and-forth  of 
a  year  or  18  months 
ago.” 

Vendors  have  begun 
to  wage  feature  con¬ 
tests,  he  said.  Today’s 
deluxe  PC  comes  with 
more  glitz  than  its  fore¬ 
bears,  such  as  multimedia  add¬ 
ons.  Better  meat-and-potatoes 
features,  such  as  faster  I/O, 
higher  capacity  disk  drives  and 
additional  warranties,  are  also 
on  the  table,  Cain  noted.  “It’s 
not  so  much  dollars  now,  but 
more  of  a  give-back  to  users  in 
terms  of  functionality,”  he  said. 


AST  Research 
to  buy  Tandy’s 
PC  business 

By  Stephen  P.  Klett  Jr. 

IRVINE, CALIF. 


AST  Research,  Inc.  last  week  said  it  plans 
to  purchase  the  bulk  of  Tandy  Corp.’s  PC 
manufacturing  operations  for  roughly 
$175  million. 

Tandy  said  the  transaction  would  in¬ 
clude  the  sale  of  its  laptop/portable  subsid¬ 
iary  Grid  Systems  Corp.,  Tandy-Grid  Eu¬ 
rope  and  manufacturing  plants  in  Texas 
and  Scotland. 

Tandy/Grid’s  share  of  U.S.  PC  shipments 
in  1992  was  roughly  3.4%,  while  AST  gar¬ 


nered  2.8%,  according  to  Framingham, 
Mass.-based  International  Data  Corp. 
Combined,  AST  and  Tandy  shipped  190,000 
units  in  the  first  quarter  of  this  year,  which 
would  make  AST  the  fourth-largest  PC 
player  behind  IBM,  Compaq  Computer 
Corp.  and  Apple  Computer,  Inc.,  IDC  ana¬ 
lyst  Ted  Julian  said. 

While  details  of  the  deal  were  sketchy, 
the  impending  transaction  comes  down  to 
a  couple  of  key  points:  Tandy  wants  out  of 
PC  manufacturing  so  it  can  focus  on  retail¬ 
ing,  while  AST  is  seeking  to  boost  manufac¬ 
turing  capacity. 

AST  “is  buying  the  ability  to  manufac¬ 
ture  Grid  [products],”  Julian  noted. 

While  AST  would  now  manufacture  all 
Grid  products  and  sell  the  Grid  line  under 
its  name  worldwide,  Tandy  is  expected  to 
retain  the  rights  to  sell  the  Grid  line  under 
its  own  name  in  the  U.S.,  Julian  said. 

Bill  Lempesis,  president  of  Lempesis  Re¬ 
search  in  Pleasanton,  Calif.,  concurred.  “If 


Tandy  is  out  of  the  PC  manufacturing  busi¬ 
ness,  it  doesn’t  mean  it  is  out  of  the  PC  re¬ 
selling  business,”  he  said,  referring  to  the 
possibility  of  Tandy  selling  AST  machines. 
“Tandy  can  probably  move  more  AST 
equipment  than  its  own.” 

An  AST  spokesman  declined  to  comment 
on  the  company’s  plans  for  the  Grid  prod¬ 
uct  line,  saying  there  wrere  too  many  details 
that  still  needed  to  be  w'orked  out.  “Our  in¬ 
tent  is  pretty  simple  —  our  goal  is  to  ex¬ 
pand  market  share,”  he  said. 

Tandy  officials  did  not  return  calls  by 
press  time.  However,  earlier  this  year 
Tandy  said  it  would  spin  off  its  manufac- 
turingoperations  into  a  separate  company. 

Final  approval  of  the  deal  is  subject  to 
the  drafting  and  approval  of  a  definitive 
purchase  agreement  by  each  company’s 
board  of  directors  and  regulatory  app  >v- 
als.  Subject  to  these  constraints,  AST  said 
it  expects  the  transaction  to  be  completed 
in  July. 


Noticeable  decline 


Although  Dell’s  revenue  has  increased,  its  profits 
have  suffered  because  of  its  inability  to  establish 
itself  as  a  major  player  in  the  higher  margin 
notebook  market 

Revenue  **•.«*--  $672.4m 

$570m 


$620.3m 


$475. 5m 


$366.1m 


Profits  $28.6m 

$19.8m  $219m 


$31. 3m 


CW  Chart:  Nancy  Kowal 


Computerworld  May  31, 1993  97 


Overview 


U.S.  computer  leasing  volume  (in  billions) 


I 


$15-4 


Leasing  BBi  Buying 

$15.8  $16.3 


Source:  Computer  Dealers  and  Lessors  Association,  Washington,  D.C. 

U.S.  economic  growth 

Measured  by  percent  change  in  gross 
domestic  product 

3.9% 


Top  5  leasing  issues 


1987  1988  1989  1990 


1991 


Based  on  surveys  of  330  teasing  companies 
that  buy,  sell  and  lease  new  and  used 
computer  equipment 


IBM,  IBM  Credit  Corp.  practices 
Product  life 
The  economy 
|  Competition 
Funds  availability 


Source:  U.S.  Bureau  of  Economic  Analysis,  Washington,  D.C.  Source:  Gartner  Group,  Inc.,  Stamford,  Conn. 

Percent  of  leasing  volume  by  equipment  type 


3% 


10% 


24% 


1991  Total:  $13.48 


17% 


1992  Total:  $15. 2B 


19% 


28% 


14% 

9% 

f 

9% 

\ 

m  O/ 

25% 

14% 

9% 

13% 

11% 

24% 


23% 


20% 


# 

J 


Large  systems  Midrange  Storage  devices  ^ 

Workstations,  PCs,  terminals  j,  Telephone  systems  Other 


Source:  Computer  Dealers  and  Lessors  Association,  Washington,  D.C. 


CW  Chart:  Michael  Siggins 


The  Fifth  Wave  by  Rich  Tennant 


Inside  Lines 


Heated  Object-ions 

In  a  heated  exchange  at  a  Comdex/Spring ’93  panel,  Microsoft  Vice 
President  Mike  Maples  bristled  at  a  statement  made  by  Lotus  Vice 
President  John  Landry,  who  said  Microsoft  is  the  only  operating 
system  vendor  not  working  with  the  Object  Management  Group  to 
develop  common  object-oriented  standards.  Landry:  “Everyone  is 
working  with  OMG  except  Microsoft.”  Maples:  “We’re  on  the  same 
footing  as  the  other  operating  system  vendors.  But  it’s  a  function 
of  when  the  standards  are  available.  We’re  not  going  to  wait  for 
committees  and  meetings  to  deliver  something.” 

It’ll  cost  ya 

Customers  said  IBM  is  tweaking  the  PS/2  line’s  software  bundles. 
Currently,  high-end  PS/2s  such  as  the  Model  95  ship  with  OS/2  2.0. 
IBM  will  soon  ship  those  systems  with  DOS  and  Windows  for  $50 
more.  IBM  is  also  supposed  to  release  models  with  OS/2  2.1  on 
them,  one  customer  said. 

Unprevent-a-bull 

The  French  government  is  moving  more  aggressively  to  divest  it¬ 
self  of  state-controlled  companies  such  as  Compagnie  des  Ma¬ 
chines  Bull,  which  it  hopes  to  sell  within  the  next  18  months  to  two 
years,  according  to  Axel  Leblois,  head  of  the  money-losingcompa- 
ny’s  U.S.  operations.  Although  Bull  has  been  on  the  so-called  priv- 
itization  list  since  1986,  political  pressure  has  recently  increased 
to  get  the  government  out  from  under  money-sapping  operations 
such  as  Bull,  carmaker  Renault  and  several  aerospace,  insurance 
and  steel  firms,  Leblois  said.  The  government  has  said  it  wants  to 
sell  most,  if  not  all,  of  its  72%  stake  to  shareholders  IBM  and  NEC. 
But  IBM,  for  one,  “is  goingthrough  so  much  turmoil  of  its  own  right 
now  —  I  just  don’t  know,”  Leblois  said.  IBM  owns  5.7%  and  NEC 
owns  4.7%  of  Bull,  which  lost  about  $114  million  on  sales  of  $5.7 
billion  last  year. 

Freedom  writer 

DEC  will  be  announcingchanges  to  its  software  licensingpractices 
next  week  at  the  Digital  Equipment  Computer  Users  Society  Sym¬ 
posium,  according  to  sources.  Multiuser  licensingwill  be  extended 
to  include  VAXstations,  and  personal  use  licenses  will  be  transfer¬ 
able  across  VAX  and  Alpha  platforms,  they  said. 

Quick!  What’s  a  six-letter  word  for . . . 

Just  when  you  were  getting  used  to  the  term  “middleware,”  you 
may  have  to  figure  out  a  substitute.  TechGnosis,  Inc.,  a  software 
vendor,  said  it  has  been  granted  a  registered  trademark  for  the 
word  from  the  U.S.  Patent  and  Trademark  Office  in  recognition  of 
the  company’s  “early  use”  of  the  term. 

Blind  faith 

Last  week’s  Next  World  Expo  got  off  to  a  cacophonous  start.  First, 
there  was  a  static-filled  sound  system  during  the  early  portion  of 
Steve  Jobs’  keynote.  Then,  hundreds  of  attendees  who  couldn’t  get 
into  the  overflow  hall  to  hear  him  talk  began  hammering  on  the 
doors  and  chanting  so  loudly  that  Jobs  stopped  in  mid-sentence. 
The  rambunctious  Next  devotees  soon  streamed  in  and  filled  every 
square  centimeter  of  the  aisles.  A  local  fire  department  spokes¬ 
man  said  they  would  launch  an  investigation  to  find  out  who  was 
responsible  for  packing  the  crowd  in  hallways  outside  the  exits 
and  then  lettingthe  overflowjam  the  aisles. 

A  Neu >  Jersey  consulting  firm  that  just  embarked  on  an  office- 
wide  trial  of  various  wireless  technologies  tuts  some  key 
advice  for  those  who  may  follow  its  lead:  You  can’t  nuke  your 
popcorn  and  use  your  portable/cellular  phones  at  the  same 
time.  If  your  phone  closet  is  near  your  microwave  oven,  the 
popcorn  will  keep  on  popping  while  phone  users  will  get 
blown  away  by  static  because  ttie  microwave  and  phones 
operate  at  close  to  the  same  frequency,  cautioned  Danny 
Briere,  president  ofTeleChoice,  Inc.  Phone,  fax  or  CompuServe 
News  Editor  Alan  Alper  with  news  tips  at  (800)  343-6474,  (508) 
875-8931  or  76537,2413,  respectively.  Or  try  Computerworld’s2J- 
hour  voice-mail  tip  line  at  (508)  820-8555. 


98  Computerworld  MAY  31,  1993 


We’d  Like  To 
Puncture  A  Few  Myths 
About  Commercial 
Parallel  Processing. 


Myth  #1 


Parallel  processing  is  a  promising  technology,  but  not 
yet  a  deliverable  business  solution. 

Some  of  the  world’s  most  successful  companies  have  been  using 
our  parallel  processing  systems  to  extend  their  business  leadership. 

Commercial  parallel  processing  is  the  natural  successor  to  today’s 
mainframe  applications.  We’ve  been  perfecting  and  delivering  the  technology 
for  almost  ten  years.  Helping  hundreds  of  customers  around  the  world  tap 
multi-million  dollar  profits  formerly  hidden  in  their  enterprise. 

Our  systems  help  our  customers  process  far  more  information  than 
conventional  mainframes  can  handle.  This  new  information  has  given  them 
a  far  better  understanding  of  their  customers  and  their  markets.  Some  have 
used  it  to  fundamentally  redesign  their  operations,  resulting  in  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  in  increased  revenues. 

Parallel  processing  has  no  practical  commercial 
applications  that  mainframes  can’t  handle. 

Conventional  mainframes  don’t  have  the  power 
to  extract  the  information  you  need  to  succeed  from  the  sea 
of  data  your  enterprise  produces. 

Your  enterprise  generates  an  enormous  amount  of  data  every  day. 

Yet  without  a  way  to  turn  that  data  into  actionable  information,  your  enter¬ 
prise  may  quickly  lose  share  to  more  aggressive,7 better  informed  competitors. 
The  NCR  System  3600  and  DBC/1012  can  help  you  get  the  information  you 
need  to  survive  and  succeed.  Using  hundreds  of  microprocessors  working 


together  to  accomplish  in  minutes  tasks  that  would  take  a  conventional 
mainframe  many  hours  to  process  serially.  Assuming  that  todav’s  mainframes 
could  do  the  work  in  the  first  place. 

Our  machines  are  easily  scalable,  so  you  can  put  the  power  you  need 
where  you  need  it.  And  they’re  designed  to  cooperate  with  your  legacy  systems, 
extending  your  current  IS  investment. 


Myth  #3 


Commercial  parallel  processing  needs  Ph.D.s  to  run  it. 

Your  current  programmers  can  write  relational  database 
applications  for  our  machines  the  way  they’ve  always  written  them. 

Our  system  software  makes  the  task  of  programming  for  parallelism 
transparent  to  your  IS  staff.  So  there’s  no  applications  bottleneck  or  expense 
associated  with  retraining.  You  can  start  realizing  the  benefits  of  greatly 
increased  processing  power  quickly. 

Commercial  parallel  processing  is  too  expensive. 

Because  our  systems  are  based  on  hundreds  of  relatively 
inexpensive,  industry-standard  microprocessors,  we  can  price  them 
very  affordably. 

Our  parallel  processing  systems  are  very  competitively  priced. 

And  when  you  consider  the  value  of  obtaining  mission-critical  information 
you  can’t  get  any  other  way,  your  potential  ROI  is  exceptional. 

For  more  information,  phone  1  800  CALL-NCR.  We’re  delivering 
commercial  parallel  processing  solutions  that  far  out  perform  anything 
the  competition  has  to  offer.  And  that’s  no  myth. 


AT&T 


Nlclr? 


An  AT&T  Company 


NCR  is  the  name  and  mark  of  NCR  Corporation.; flXT  and  IheAKT  globe  design  are  registered  service  marks  and  trademarks  of  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company. 


The  Intel  Inside  logo  is  a  trademark  of  Intel  Corporation.  ©  1993  NCR  Corporation. 


Our  Competitors  Are  So 
Confident  Of  Their  Products, 
They  Guarantee  Them  To  Last 
A  Third  As  Long  As  Ours. 


\RRANTY 

11  Computers 


There’s  a  common  misconception  to¬ 
day  that  computers  are  all  alike.  That 
they’re  made  from  the  same  compo¬ 
nents.  That  a  box  is  a  box  is  a  box. 

Well,  here  at  Compaq,  we  have  over 
9,000  employees  who  could  tell  you 


why  all  PCs  are  not  the  same. 

That  there  are  important 
differences  in  quality.  And  re¬ 
liability.  And  compatibility. 

That,  in  the  end,  COMPAQ 
computers  are  designed  to  help 
you  get  more 
done  with  few¬ 
er  problems. 

But  We  also  jf^e  COMFAQJProLinea,  and  all 

affordable  computers,  feature  high- 
knOW  that  this  performance  processors  from  Intel. 

could  sound  like  an  empty  ad¬ 
vertising  promise  if  we  didn’t 
back  it  up.  So  we  do. 

Because  unlike  others  who 
charge  for  extended  coverage, 
all  of  our  affordably  priced 


our 


PCs  include  a  3  year  warranty  with  one 
year  of  on-site  service!*  Free. 

And  only  a  company  that  offers  a  bet¬ 
ter  product  can  offer  a  better  guarantee. 
For  a  reseller  near  you,  please  call  us 

at  1-800-345-1518.  COMPAQ. 


1  YEAR  WARRANTY 

IBM  PS/ValuePoint  and  PS/1 


,,f?A  a  i«A  t  w 


1  YEAR  WARRANTY 

All  Dell  Computers 


S's:.: .  J 


\  mmm 


1995  l  ompaq  t  omputer  Corporation.  All  Rights  Ri  vrvcd,  COMPAQ  registered  U  S.  Patent  and  Trademark  Ofllce.  Product  names  mentioned  herein  may  he  trademarks  and/or  registered  trademarks  of  their  respec 
tive  companies  1  h«  Intel  Inside  logo  is  a  registered  trademark  of  the  Intel  Corporation.  *  All  monitors  shown  are  covered  by  a  one  year  warranty.  For  further  details  on  our  limited  warranty,  contact  the  Compaq  Customer 
Support  t  enter  **  This  vers  ice  i>  provided  by  Contracted  Service  Providers  and  may  not  be  available  in  certain  geographic  locations  Certain  restrictions  and  exclusions  apply.